Basis of Humanity
by uncreative pseudonym
Summary: A corrupt government experiment tampering with genetic material will stop at nothing to succeed. A being more monster than man struggles with his own humanity. What Samus Aran realizes she's involved in could change the galaxy... and herself.
1. The End of the Matter

It has been said more than once that some of my disclaimers appear arrogant and contemptuous. This may be a futile effort, but please allow me to assure you this is not my intent. The only reason I write author's notes is to pass along something I thought was important to a theoretical reader; if in the process I appear arrogant (or, perhaps,act arrogant), I apologize.

That aside, this disclaimer covers a few things that I consider important but nothing that is critical to understanding. Before I go further, I'll state this once: I appreciate any feedback, even if it contains no real information, because it is my only way of knowing if the story is being read.

Foremost, I wrote this story without any specific game in the Metroid series in mind (though perhaps the first, if any). I am not an expert on these games, nor am I familiar with the extended plot. For example, the Chozo do not exist, Ridley does not exist and the Space Pirates play only a minor role. What I wanted to do is work with the characters and basic universe of the games. It could then be called an alternate universe fan fiction.

While I have made an effort to make things generally biologically or technologically probable, please keep in mind suspension of disbelief. I have not studied any of these fields and I'm trying to write an interesting story, not a research paper. That having been said, if something is ridiculously off feel free to tell me.

The rating is liable to change at any given time, as the content of the story varies greatly depending on the subject matter in a given context. There is battling, which varies from harmlessly stylized to physiologically realistic gore, some language as is practical given circumstances (edited for the first half, unedited in the second; this leads to broken words in the firs tportion), and what I suppose would be called "adult themes" (working long hours, paying taxes, going to meetings, etc).

I've taken enough of your time, and this tangent has run its course. To the story.

* * *

Basis of Humanity

Chapter 1: The End of the Matter

The glass tube shattered into thousands of shards, each of which went flying across the room, creating a rain of glass. They fell to the floor, crashing into smaller pieces. All the blue liquid that had been stored within the tube gushed out, spilling on the floor. Still the room remained dark; no other being disturbing it.

No being other than the one that had floated within the glass tube. Now it was out, collapsed on the ground amid the glass splinters. Slowly it got to its feet, painfully, as if the effort was the most it could manage. Just as slowly, the being raised its hands to its face, and found itself looking at claws.

"What am I?" it asked, voice breaking as if it had been in long disuse. "_What am I?_"

Dr. Rutger veritably marched along the spotlessly white corridor. As always, he walked at a fast clip, his immaculate white lab coat trailing behind him. His shoes, shone until they reflected the light, clicked rhythmically on the steel floor.

One did not attain the position of Chief Scientist easily, not by any means. To secure his status, Dr. Rutger had been forced to go to great lengths. Of course, graduating with four Intergalactic Doctorates of Philosophy helped, but it hadn't been enough. As had everyone on this project, he had pulled strings to get onto the station. Even murder had not been out of the question if something came between him and his goals. Not that he had killed someone, no, never that; he had some dignity. That was what assassins and bounty hunters were for.

There was no scientific project possessing greater prestige than Project Darklight. Even the very knowledge of its existence signified you were one of the elite. Only a percentage of these privileged few were granted the right to work on it. Hidden throughout the galaxy were three space stations designed solely for work on the project; they were Stations Sapphire, Ruby and Emerald. It was a well known fact, among the elite, that Station Sapphire was the most prestigious of the three.

This station. A slight smile crept onto Dr. Rutger's face at the fact. He was the Chief Scientist of the Station Sapphire branch of Project Darklight, making _him_ the most important scientist in the universe. True, their financiers were technically over him, but what have men of science ever cared for political power?

An aide sat slouched at a computer terminal, gazing at the streams of data that continued to flow past his computer screen in a rapid rate. His partner in the chair beside him was snoring softly. Dr. Rutger's eyes narrowed instantly.Undoubtedly, both men would have been considered merely eccentric geniuses in most of the galaxy. Not at Project Darklight.

"You there!" he snapped, directly behind the sleeping aide. He started in his chair, immediately moving to look as though he was carefully considering the data streams. Too late. "You may have been able to get away sleeping on the job in grade school," Dr. Rutger sneered, "but not here."

"Please, sir," the aide gasped, "don't make me leave. Anything but that! This is my passion! I love this work! I couldn't possibly do anything else, you can't make me leave my one true goal in life!"

"You are stripped of your position, and you will leave this station at once under escort," Dr. Rutger went on coldly. "If found on the premises after 18:00 you will be considered an intruder and terminated as such."

"No! Anything but that! I have a wife and kids at home, sir, I need this job to support them!"

"A likely story." Dr. Rutger paused, staring the delinquent worker in the eyes. "And even if it were so, I wouldn't care."

"Please!" The man leapt to his feet, gripping Dr. Rutger's lab coat in his hands.

"Remove your hands before I call security," Dr. Rutger responded icily. The man sank back, then collapsed sobbing into his chair. Immediately the doctor's gaze swept to the other man, who had been glanced at them nervously the entire confrontation. "And you- if I ever see you slouching on the job again, the same will happen to you."

"Yes, sir!"

Turning on his heel, Dr. Rutger marched down the hallway, shoes clicking just as precisely as before. That had been necessary, but it had cost him time. Time was the most precious of commodities. As he passed, the scientist officiously straightened the name tag of another worker. Sloppy hygiene could not be permitted.

Rounding a corner, Dr. Rutger found himself at the entrance of the biochemical lab. The door's security system scanned his body, retina and DNA for a moment before opening with a faint hiss of hydraulics. Instantly a blast of cold air swept from the door as the frigid temperatures flooded out. Ignoring it, Dr. Rutger stalked in; the door closed behind him instantly.

His presence made everyone straighten, work more industriously. On the far side of the room, a white haired man also in a lab coat was studying a clipboard. Hearing Dr. Rutger's entrance, he nodded. Scribbling a few things on the clipboard, the doctor gave it to an aide with a few words of instruction, then made a beeline for Dr. Rutger.

Sighing, the Chief Scientist slowed his walk. There was no point trying to escape the room; he would undoubtedly be tracked down. He only needed to walk through the biochemical lab, but it appeared he would be waylaid yet again. Dr. Walters could be a frightfully stubborn being when he put his mind to it. The man was a brilliant scientist, but was also incredibly annoying.

"There you are," Dr. Walters said as he came into range. As if he had just seen him, and was annoyed at the interruption, Dr. Rutger glanced in his direction. Dr. Walters was one of the few scientists on the project in the highest level of genius. Unfortunately, the two doctors disagreed on many issues, eliminating any amount of synergy they might have had.

"What is it?" Dr. Rutger asked briskly.

"I can't approve these most recent developments, sir."

"What developments?"

"The DXDV deoxyribonucleic acid strand being used in the research department. It simply can't be allowed to contin-"

"And what," Dr. Rutger interrupted, putting a slight amount of menace into his voice to indicate his disapproval, "is wrong with that DNA strand?"

"If you don't mind, _doctor,_ I was going to explain it to you." Dr. Walters shoved a pair of glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I've seen DXDV strings before. I was the Chief Scientist of Station Ruby, I would remind you."

Of course he would remind him. Dr. Rutger gritted his teeth at this old wound being reopened.

"You gave up your rights as Chief Scientist when you left Station Ruby to work here. Do not bring it up again."

"And do you know why I left? Do you?" Dr. Walters demanded. "I thought not. I had my reasons, Jason, trust me. But they used the DXDV string there, and it was a disaster."

"All our reports have shown that it will merely increase the subject's strength and agility. It is the perfect addiction."

"Well, sure, it does that. It also makes them _insane_!"

"Very well, _Marcus_," Dr. Rutger responded, taking care to use his first name as well. "Your opinion has been logged, and the board will review it."

"Fine."

"If you'll excuse me, I'm a very busy man." Putting on another burst of speed, Dr. Rutger stalked from the biochemical lab. Now, hopefully, there would be no more distractions. Immediately adjacent to the biochemical lab, and taking advantage of its low temperature, was the storage room. All the subjects and specimens were kept here, under freezing conditions. It was here that Dr. Rutger had been heading this entire time.

"Um, excuse me, sir?" a voice tentatively stated. Whirling, eyes flashing, Dr. Rutger glared at the startled aide.

"What is it?"

"There's some... uh, rather important news, sir."

"Well? Spit it out!"

"Station Ruby was destroyed, sir."

"What?" Dr. Rutger exploded. Destroyed? How? How could such a thing happen?

"There had been no response from the station for several weeks, sir, and a team was sent to investigate it. They found nothing but a bit of rubble where the station had been. No one really knows the cause or any of the details surrounding it."

"I see." Narrowing his eyes, Dr. Rutger gave the matter some deep thought. Such a thing needed to be deeply considered indeed. Waving aside the aide, the Chief Scientist walked on, into the main storage area. Hundreds of specimens lay unmoving in large vats of green liquid, but the doctor had no eye for them, having seen them countless times.

The precise clicking of the doctor's heels stopped abruptly as he came into sight of the tube at the far end of the hall. He had come here for the sole purpose of checking up on how this subject was doing. It had been a delicate operation, with the subject's vital signs frequently dropping dangerously low. Any time he checked on it, he was prepared for most possibilities.

But not the complete absence of a specimen. The tube was unbroken, the green liquid sitting undisturbed. And there was nothing inside it. Instantly Dr. Rutger tensed, glancing about the lab. What could have happened? Was it possible that someone moved the subject without his knowledge? Ridiculous; they could not do anything without his approval.

Where were the scientists in charge of this storage center? Why had they allowed this to happen. Fury building up inside him, Dr. Rutger stormed to the far wall of the large room, where the idiots who had allowed this to happen would be.

His rage vanished in an instant as his gaze turned to the sight before him. The scientists were lying on the floor in pools of their own blood. Dr. Rutger had only time to gape for a few instants, his breath coming in ragged, wet gasps, before a claw sliced into him from behind. Before the doctor hit the floor, he was dead.

Only a herald of what was to come.

Leaning back in her chair, Samus Aran sighed heavily. As always, the bounty hunter was wearing her complete bio suit. She had hoped to have even a few days free for a bit of rest and relaxation, but it seemed that it was not to be. No sooner had she stepped off her own ship from another successful operation than she had been accosted by agents of the Galactic Council. They needed her for another job again. When did they ever associate with her except when they needed work done?

There were many worse jobs, true. Had it been one of those, she would have refused it. But the Galactic Council paid well, and there was a vague feeling that in doing their work she was helping out the galaxy. At least in some small way Samus liked that feeling.

Besides, in the past, all their operations had been serious. Several times she had been called upon to eliminate serious problems, most recently the Metroid issue. That wasn't anything Samus wanted to remember, and she quickly moved away from that line of thought. Just to make sure, she checked that the computer's navigation system was steering her aright, then sat back in her chair again.

Tapping her fingers together, the feared bounty hunter considered her situation. After her last job, she still had more than enough money to get her by. Though Samus was undoubtedly one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy, the job surprisingly didn't create that high of living standards. While every mission she took yielded a high amount of money, her gross income was offset by ship repairs (which seemed all too common), equipment upgrades and general living expenses. More times than she cared to remember, Samus had found herself short on money. So it really wasn't all that lucrative of a position.

Laughing softly at herself, Samus considered what she sounded like. So what did she do the job for, then, the joy of working? _Why yes, I do enjoy running around and killing things! It takes a real devotion to the art!_ Sadly, such was almost true. Plus, as a bounty hunter, it was socially permissible to be independent, regardless of gender. And there was something great about being able to put an energy weapon in someone's face when they annoyed you.

_Am I really that bad? _Surely, there were worse bounty hunters, who'd slit their own mother's throats if they thought they could get money out of it. Then there were the bounty hunters who had already done so. And probably some that didn't have mothers, one way or another. But regardless, Samus liked to think of herself as an efficient agent, not a criminal slightly on the right side of the law. She was merely good at what she did, and in this industry that meant she was very dangerous.

One of the lights in her computer console blinked, Samus glanced down at it closer. There was a message, coming from the Galactic Council Station ahead. They must have been in a hurry, if they didn't even let her land before contacting her. Flipping a switch on the control panel, Samus nodded to the official as he appeared on screen.

"Samus Aran. We're glad you could make it."

"Why did you need me so urgently?" She hated these political types. So many words to say so little. While Samus tended to be terse in speech anyway, she became even more so when she had to work with politicians.

"The situation is an urgent one, and of quite dire need. We do not believe it will take that long, but we want only the best working for us."

"But what is it?"

"A research station of ours has apparently been lost. There was a transmission coming from it as the connection was snapped, so we have only partial information. What we have been able to determine was that something has attacked the station, and did so quite suddenly. In any case, they were destroyed or eliminated before they could make a distress call."

"We don't know what this 'something' is?"

"Not at all, I'm afraid. It could be alien in nature, or possible just a pirate attack. There has been heavy marauder action in that quadrant lately, and we believe that may be the cause."

"Aren't all Galactic Stations equipped with defensive systems? Shouldn't those systems have defended them long enough for any attack to be detected?" Samus asked, eyes narrowing.

"Look," the politician threw up his hands, "I don't know what's going on. No one has any idea. What we want you to do is escort a team of our scientists to the station. If you protect them and deal with any dangers on the station, we'll consider the job done. We'll provide you with another ship for navigating the asteroid field surrounding the station."

"It's in an asteroid field?" Samus raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"I really don't know that either. This is all handled by the science types. Listen, we're willing to pay you 30,000 for this job, if you get it done quickly."

Samus resisted the urge to whistle and merely nodded. That was a lot, even more than they had paid her for some simpler jobs. Why would they care so much about this research station? "Fine. Why was I contacted now and not when I reached the station?"

"Time is of the essence. The scientists' ship is already prepared, and we have your new ship primed alongside it. As soon as you arrive, you can leave. As I have said, this is a very urgent issue. If we can help them, we want to help. If not, we need to get information as quickly as possible."

"Very well. End transmission." As the image before her vanished, replaced by the endless expanse of stars, Samus closed her eyes. Something about this job felt odd. Then again, a lot of Galactic Council jobs were odd: if they needed to hire a bounty hunter, it was most likely for a task far outside the ordinary.

As she neared the station, Samus quickly entered her docking codes and prepared the ship for connecting to the station itself. Rising from her seat, Samus tapped the side of her helmet, sliding the visor down over her face. Instantly the glass lit up with assorted readings and data. Ignoring these things, Samus checked that the energy cannons on both arms were working, and that all systems were at full. They were, as always.

The ship jolted slightly as it made contact with the station, but Samus was used to such movement. As the door into the station opened, Samus was already striding from it, vanishing into the corridors.


	2. Rigor Mortis

I am pleased to see this story actually receied favorable reviews. It is my intention to continue posting it weekly, and I hope that it will perform to your standards, both as entertainment and as a literary work.

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Chapter 2: Rigor Mortis

"...and this is what we call the Darklight Scope." The scientist held up a fine computer chip before his thick glasses. "It will operate with your own sensors, and take the data readings there. This model was designed to work with your suit design, and you should receive accurate readings if you switch to Darklight mode."

"That's fine. But what does it do?" Samus took the chip carefully, then began inserting it into the main core of her suit's interface. She was standing next to the stubby scientist, both of them before the bio suit, which lay on a clean white table.

This guy was annoying her. He managed to say a lot of words, all of which had meaning, yet never answer the question he had been asked. Perhaps she was just paranoid (though you had to be, in this business), but she had carefully checked everything he had given her. So far it had been nothing but a few software upgrades for her suit they had decided she needed. For the first time, however, he had given her something truly new.

"One of the many experiments being done aboard this station was done with a very hazardous experimental chemical. While we believe your bio suit will prevent damage to you, it still poses a major threat. However, this chemical also generates a high degree of nega-photons, which can be sensed by the Darklight Scope. But I suppose you don't understand a term like that. A nega-photon is like radiation."

Brushing blond hair away from her face, Samus glanced up at the scientist icily. "A nega-photon is an anti-matter particle that was considered theoretical until only a few years ago when its existence was proven in the Jarvy-Miller experiment. It exhibits properties both of normal photons and of molecules, creating a supportive effect in low quantities and devastating damage at intensities greater than 53.7 lumens. Evidence of such a particle was discovered in several alien life forms, all of which were biologically capable of controlling said particles."

"Err... umm... that's right."

Satisfied with the blank expression on his face, Samus returned to her work. The chip he had given her wasn't infected with any sort of virus, and it apparently did what he had claimed. It might be useful, for this situation.

"All hands on deck," a voice broke over the intercom. "Approaching the station in T minus thirty seconds."

Then it was time to go. Samus fully opened the bio suit, then laid down carefully inside it and activated it with a simple command. Instantly the metal of the suit clamped together over her, sealing itself and form a protective shell around her body. For a few moments the suit hummed as it again became connected to her system, then it came online.

Getting up from the table, Samus checked her gun just in case. Just being back inside the suit made her feel so much better; outside of it she felt too weak and vulnerable. The suit added a few inches to her height, Samus found herself looking even further down at the scientist. Without a word she strode from the room.

The bridge was only a short distance away; Samus entered it without asking. Everyone was solely concerned with a safe approach to the station, and as she entered soundlessly they didn't notice. For some time Samus merely watched the station approach on the large viewing screen. It was odd; the station was a model she was familiar with, yet it was painted a dark color, to match the starscape behind it. For that matter, it was orbiting an uninhabited planet in the middle of an asteroid field, hardly a safe place for a station of this size. Almost as if they didn't want anyone knowing about the station's existence.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" one of the pilots finally glanced behind him carefully enough to see Samus. She didn't answer, ignoring him completely. "You can't come in here."

"Calm down," the commander said slowly. "It's alright. Forgive the ensign's zealous behavior, this station is quite classified."

"Forgiven," Samus responded tersely. The ship drew closer to the station, and Samus merely continued to watch. Access codes from the ship were sent out, and the station responded, opening the main airlock for the ship to connect.

"Excuse me," an aide said timidly, tapping Samus on one armored shoulder. "They need you down by the loading bay."

"Of course." Following the aide, Samus quickly found herself within a long elevator. Folding her arms, she began to think. It wasn't her place to question her employers, but she was beginning to wonder about this entire business. They were being too secretive, giving her too few details. Only in retrospect did Samus realize that while the scientist had been exacting in every aspect, he had only given her vague information about the chemical they had been experimenting with. What could it be that was that serious?

The doors of the elevator opened, and Samus pushed such thoughts from her mind. Striding from the doors, Samus quickly took in the situation. A group was standing by the loading doors, waiting for them to lock onto the station. All of the group appeared to be scientists, apparently there to assess the damage. That seemed legitimate enough. None of the scientists spoke to her, though a few glanced in her direction. It would be best if it stayed that way.

Bringing her guns online, Samus patiently waited for the doors to open.

.

More disturbing than anything else, there was nothing. Samus had been in many dangerous places in her lifetime, many far more dangerous than here. But if she had learned nothing else, she had learned what silence meant: either everything was fine, or something was very wrong. Going through a station that should have contained hundreds of scientists and finding absolutely nothing was disturbing. Almost, Samus wished that they would run into a space pirate, just so she could shoot something.

"Yeaugh!" Hearing the cry, Samus whirled instantly, gun ready. One of the scientists was shivering, standing unmoving looking at something. Before Samus could see what it was, it leapt forward, toward the scientist. With expert aim Samus fired through the group, missing all the scientists and striking the creature directly. It slammed back into the wall, then fell to the ground.

By this point the scientists figured out that something had happened, and were turning to look. Pushing through them, Samus knelt down beside the thing, examining it closer. An alien life form, obviously, and a relatively hostile one. Realizing she had seen it before, Samus slowly recognized one of the monsters she had fought in her original Metroid mission.

A faint scratching sound vibrated in the corridor's floor. Instantly Samus glanced up, face unworried but tense. She knew what was coming next, knew all too well. Well, she had asked for something to shoot... _ i be careful what you wish for_. /i

"Get back!" she yelled to the scientists, shoving the nearest toward another room. Stumbling over themselves, the rest followed, evacuating the corridor. Fortunately, they made it inside before anything happened.

Straightening, Samus turned in the corridor and waited, staring into the darkness. Slowly she raised her gun, generating a powerful shot. With a slight tap of a finger, she switched her visor to infrared mode and continued waiting.

The instant a faintly glowing green spot appeared in the corridor, Samus fired, her shot sending the spot of heat flying. Already more were advancing; Samus turned off her infrared vision and prepared to fight.

Scampering or crawling, the alien monsters rushed forward, mandibles snapping. The sight of so many would have quailed almost anyone. Samus was not almost anyone. Firing rapidly, she picked off as many of the group as possible before they converged on her. Jumping over the swipe of a large claw, Samus blasted her attacker into oblivion, then leapt back.

Just as she touched the wall, Samus activated her magnetic boots, remaining parallel to the ground. Even as she did so, the bounty hunter also fired a rocket toward the pack of monsters, sending most of them in several directions. Running as quickly as possible in magnetic boots, each step an incredible force of will, Samus made it to the opposite side of the mob of monsters, then returned to the ground.

As they turned to attack her again, Samus continued to pick them off. Ordinarily she would have used more potent explosives, but in a research station such as this the damage would probably be irreparable. If it didn't flat-out blow a hole in the side of the station. While a vacuum couldn't hurt her within the bio suit, everyone else would undoubtedly die.

Finally picking off the last of the monsters, Samus abruptly dove for the floor, curling into a ball as she did so. Acting only on instinct she rolled forward, uncurling on the opposite side of the corridor.

Standing where she had been moments ago was a larger monster, built powerfully and somewhat armored. Its spiked fist was buried in the floor where she had been seconds earlier. As it pulled its fist from the ground and turned toward her, Samus fired a shot. Unfortunately, this alien's exoskeleton seemed far tougher than the others.

Only minorly pushed back by the shot, the alien rushed forward toward her. Samus narrowed her eyes and held her ground; she had dealt with tough shelled aliens before. Switching her hand cannon to a Gatling-style gun, Samus blasted the monster with a constant stream of hot blue energy fire.

For a few moments the creature was pushed back. Each shot did little damage to its tough armor, but the force of the combined attacks drove it to the wall. Abruptly the attacks stopped, but only because Samus was leaping toward the creature. In midair Samus leveled her left arm, which had been charging the entire time, at the beast's chest.

Plasmic energy ripped through the monster, tearing a hole in the floor as well. The alien life form dropped to the ground instantly, all life energy already gone from it. First scanning the area nearby for any other hostile beings, Samus then carefully stepped over the creature's body and to the room with the scientists. They glanced up at her in fear, then all sighed in relief.

"Come on," Samus beckoned impatiently. "This is a dangerous place. We have to get out of here quickly."

"The main lab is a short distance from here," one of the scientists commented, looking at a map he had brought up on a computer screen. Quickly finding the route to it, Samus turned on a heel and left the room. All the scientists scrambled after her, now somewhat frightened. It was fortunate they hadn't seen the monsters attack, Samus reflected, or some of them might not be able to go on at all.

They found the lab relatively quickly. One of the scientists rushed forward, inputting a code in the lock at the door. Several feet thick of heavy metal slid away, revealing another corridor. Samus was about to take a step forward when one of the scientists got in her way, effectively stopping her.

"You don't need to come in here."

"Why not?" Samus asked, eyes narrowing.

"This area has already been scanned and declared safe. We'll just clean up everything and then be gone."

"If you could scan this far into the station, why couldn't you sense the alien life forms we met just a few minutes ago?"

"Look, I don't understand all this, I just know what I've been told. We'll close the blast doors, and we'll be safe. You have another job to do."

"Since when?" Samus demanded. This situation was getting stranger and stranger by the minute. "There were no other mission objectives."

"Objectives change when situations change. Now that we know there are hostile life forms here, we cannot allow the station to survive. As soon as we get all the information from here, we need to leave as quickly as possible. What you have to do is get to the station's Power Core and set an explosion to wipe out the station."

"That's possible. I want double payment."

" i _Double? /i _"

"That or the job's off. If you want to get back by yourself be my guest."

"Fine, fine. Whatever you want. Just get the station destroyed and get us out of here."

Rushing back hurriedly, as if not wanting to give her time to change her mind, the scientist retreated behind the blast doors. They slowly closed, and when the last echo faded the corridor was once again in silence. For a moment Samus puzzled over the entire situation, then decided it wasn't her problem and turned. Now to find the Power Core.

But where to start? In an entire space station, one could never go everywhere in a single day. Certainly, the Power Core would be located along the thin shaft that was in the very center of the station. However, getting to it was not a simple matter.

Just to experiment, Samus switched on her Darklight Scope. Instantly her field of vision shifted to a dark set of greys. Everything in the corridor was still visible, just mostly dark. Glancing back, Samus discovered several locations that glowed a soft green, like a low amount of heat in an infrared scope. Apparently this operated in a similar manner.

Turning back to look forward in the corridor, Samus was just about to switch off the Darklight scope when she noticed a soft glow. It was mostly masked by a wall, but she could still faintly see something. Whatever it was, it was probably giving off a lot of nega-photons to be visible from behind a solid object.

Quickly making her way in that direction, Samus left her visor in the same mode, tracking the faint light to its source. As she drew closer, Samus found that the light slowly intensified, shifting to brighter colors. By the time she moved through a set of blast doors and actually arrived in the area itself, everything around her glowed a dull shade of red. Now that her Darklight Scope was no longer useful, Samus turned it off and got a better look around her.

It was another laboratory, Samus instantly realized. This wasn't the main lab, as the scientists were all in that one, but apparently a fairly large auxiliary one. Everything here had high quantities of the radiation, causing the overall red glow. That alone was odd, and enough to merit further investigation.

Moving down the corridor cautiously, Samus glanced at all the doors, quickly reading the labels on each. Most of it was high level scientific jargon, but a few things caught Samus' eye. Some of the doors merely stated the name of a species of alien Samus was relatively familiar with. All of them were very dangerous. What sort of research station was this?

Abruptly Samus stopped, gazing at the door merely labeled "Metroid." So this was where that specimen had gone. Eyes narrowing further, Samus resisted the urge to enter and moved on. She had more important things to do.

Going back on that decision the next second, Samus flipped on her infrared vision and scanned the area around. There was absolutely nothing alive or even hot anywhere near; this section of the station was completely dead. Well, not quite... Samus saw a faint green spot at the end of the hall.

Returning to normal vision, Samus focused on the end of the hallway. One door stood there, exactly like all the others. None the less, Samus found herself somewhat hesitant as she drew closer to it. Nothing cataclysmic happened, and she was soon close enough to read the label on the door.

"Combinative Research," Samus read aloud. Her own voice broke the unnatural silence, startling her. Shrugging it off, Samus quickly opened the door, glancing within. Nothing immediately attacked; Samus checked on every level possible again just to make sure. That one point of heat was still within, and a bit more distinct now, but other than that there was nothing.

Slowly moving into the room, Samus noted that temperatures dropped significantly within this chamber. There were canisters of blue liquid on either side, and Samus could see little of the large room until she came past them.

Instantly all of Samus' muscles tensed, ready to move, to act instantly. Unconsciously her hand nearly fired. The sight before her was horrific, bodies strewn about the lab as if thrown in every direction. Most of them appeared to have been ripped apart, and Samus grimly acknowledged what had done the deed. By this point they were cold and stiff, so that meant the warm location might be someone alive. Either that, or the alien who had done all this.

Bringing her energy cannon to bear, Samus stepped around a tall filing cabinet, bringing herself into sight of the being. To her relief, it was not a dangerous monster. Instead, a man lay slumped against a wall, his breaths rasping slow and shallow. Hearing her, his eyes focused blearily, his bead barely moving to look at her.

"...who?" he managed to gasp, then fell into a coughing fit. Kneeling beside him, Samus looked him over. Something had pierced his stomach, and she recognized instantly that the wound was mortal. It was a miracle he had survived even this long. The coughing only served to irritate the wound more, and Samus grimly realized he had little time left.

"...the fools did it..." the man rasped, "...I told them this would happen..."

"Ssh, be still."

"...too late for me. I'll die... but I was right... they should never have done it."

"Done what?" Part of Samus felt guilty for getting information out a dying man, but he seemed willing to talk and she needed to know what he had to say. Not very guilty.

"Everything. It was a mistake. All of it... should have worked." For a few moments he continued to cough, and a bit of red fell to his shirt. "You'd think we'd get the point... stop messing around the building blocks of life... this is what we get. I hope the galaxy will survive..."

"Survive what?"

"Wouldn't," he gave a painful sounding hack, "wouldn't you like to know?"

Suddenly the doctor's head slumped, finally succumbing due to loss of blood. For a moment Samus remained there, not wanting to move. What had he meant? Obviously, there was something going on here she had no knowledge of, and it was annoying her. If only she had a bit more information, his cryptic comments might make sense.

Eventually common sense returned to her, and Samus got to her feet. Before leaving, she glanced at the name tag resting on the man's formerly white lab coat. She nodded solemnly to the body before leaving the room.

"Rest in peace, Dr. Walters."


	3. Sacrifices

I apolgozei for the tardiness of this chapter. I fully intend to update every Thursday.

In responses to the previous chapter I have been continually surprised that several people asked for descriptions of the alien life forms involved (via several different avenues of communication). Simply put, I never cared. The matter is so tangential to the story that I didn't consider it very important. However, in accordance with what people care about, all future aliens (not including this chapter) will be better described.

-

Chapter 3: Sacrifices

Striding through the corridors, Samus quickly made her way toward the main laboratory. She wanted some answers, and she wanted them now. If they wouldn't open the blast doors, she'd blow them open herself.

Rounding a corner, Samus found that something else was already afoot. Instantly she spun back around the corner, pouring over the image in her mind. Monsters had been swarming around the heavy blast doors, but they really weren't doing any damage. Flipping to infrared mode, Samus glanced back in that direction. There was a very hot area near the base of the door, and two more on the sides. What could those be?

Risking a glance around the corner, Samus got an answer to her question. Several monsters were against the blast door, patiently breathing flame onto the door, slowly melting through it. Already they had made their way several feet into the thick doorway. The two other heated areas on the sides were having the same done to them.

[i]_They're getting around them,[/i]_ Samus realized suddenly, with a slight chill. [i]_Not only are they breaking through the blast doors, they're tunneling around the other side, to catch them on both ends._[/i]

That wasn't normal alien behavior. All alien life forms discovered to this point weren't capable of higher thought, certainly not a planned attack such as this one. Something was definitely wrong, but Samus didn't want to think about what it could be at the moment. If they managed to break through, they'd slaughter the scientists effortlessly.

Samus came around the corner, both guns blazing. Immediately the monsters turned toward her, though the first ranks had already fallen. Before they could fully charge, Samus fired rockets into each of the side tunnels being burned. Flaming infernos destroyed the monsters within each. Meanwhile, the rest of the monsters were rushing forward toward her.

Out of curiosity, Samus briefly switched to Darklight mode, long enough to confirm that all these monsters were indeed saturated with radiation. Most of them glowed a dull green or blue, so they were probably just contaminated by this station. Then they were near her, and Samus had no more time for such investigations.

Firing a grappling hook directly up, Samus waited until it clamped into the ceiling, then allowed the chain to retract, pulling her above the wave of monsters. From her higher position, Samus continued firing down at the aliens below. Several flying monsters detached at once, then flew at her from opposite directions. It was a planned attack, she realized, and actually coordinated.

Not to be outdone, Samus pulled herself up to the ceiling and activated her magnetic boots. Once upside down with both hands free Samus fired in both directions and destroyed the flying creatures. So this might be a bit tougher, though they didn't have any powerful monsters.

Something caught her from behind, and Samus felt herself propelled across the room, and into the wall. Landing heavily, Samus barely raised a gun in time to blast away the monster leaping at her. With a bit of time to think, she realized what they had done. It had been a surprise attack, and a relatively good one. Much smarter than usual.

Still, they couldn't truly match her in intelligence or firepower. The last of the monsters charged toward her, but were wiped out before they bridged half the distance. Checking the nearby areas with her infrared scope to ensure there were no more, Samus turned back to the blast doors just as they slid open.

An ashen faced scientist stumbled forward, and others soon followed him.

"What's going on here?" Samus demanded. The scientist shook his head numbly for a few seconds before finding his voice.

"This station was attacked by monsters from the nearby planet. They can breath in space, and were apparently launched here. Once inside the station, they slaughtered everyone. Everything is contaminated." He made as if to rush past her, back down the corridor toward the ship.

"Wait." Samus extended an arm in his way, catching him and instantly stopping his momentum. "That doesn't make any sense."

"What do you mean?" he asked nervously.

"How could alien life forms like that escape the planet's gravity? None of them have that sort of flying ability. This space station model automatically broadcasts an SOS if any unidentified objects near it without authorization, but you said you hadn't received any word. Why didn't that happen?

"More importantly, I saw some strange experiments going on in the other labs. What exactly was this station supposed to be researching?"

"I don't know!" he insisted, wringing his hands slightly. "We have to get out of here!"

"I better get that double pay," Samus growled, making him shrink back just slightly.

"Right, right, anything you ask. We'll get to the ship as quickly as possible, you find the Power Core and plant a destructive device. If this station is allowed to continue, the monsters will spread and contaminate the universe!"

"I'll do it," Samus said after some contemplation. "When I get back I expect to get some answers."

"Certainly."

Whirling on a heel, Samus strode down the corridor, letting the scientists go in the opposite direction. If they ran into any monsters, it was their fault. As a mercenary it really wasn't her job to ask questions, but this issue was bugging her. Obviously, she wasn't being told some important details, and that annoyed her more than anything. Who was being less than honest?

In fact, ordinarily Samus would have long ago left a job like this. But this was the Galactic Council, they were essentially good people. Not that there couldn't be bad people within a good organization. Or good people in a bad organization.

As she walked, Samus brought up a diagnostic of her bio suit. Power sources were still running normally, though they were a bit overheated from the recent fighting. Fortunately, they'd cool down quickly. Some rockets were gone, but they probably wouldn't be necessary unless she ran into a truly gigantic life form near the Power Core. The one hit she had taken during the battle had caused 5% damage to her right arm, but most of it was superficial and would be healed by the suit's self repairing function. She was good to go.

Shifting the bio suit around her hand to energy cannon mode, Samus began to run down the corridor. The sooner she made it out of this bizarre mission the better. Quickly she made her way through the station, drawing closer to the Power Core. It was a relatively simple design, actually, and it was inevitable that she would reach the Core itself.

A faint hum began to vibrate her just slightly, as she neared the Core. It sounded like an energy based Power Core, which was a good sign. Those could be destroyed relatively easily. The corridor she was in continued to wrap around itself, and Samus eventually realized it was merely a ring around the room containing the Power Core. So the entrance must not be on this level.

Not having the time to bother going elsewhere, Samus blasted her way through the wall. Ducking through the hole, Samus glanced about the chamber that contained the Power Core carefully. It still appeared to be functioning normally.

For someone who had never seen the central Power Core of a space station, it could be an awe inspiring sight. A long column in the center of the station was merely a tall chamber, designed solely for the purpose of containing the Power Core. The Core itself was a solid blue column of energy that glowed in the center of the room, flying up from a metal base on the floor to a ring on the ceiling. At the very bottom the base of the Core contained numerous computer panels for control of the station's power. Above it, catwalks extended for more specific work, dotted by computer terminals. Samus had seen Power Cores before and ignored it.

Because she had made her own entrance, none of the catwalks were nearby. Jumping from the hole in the wall, Samus activated her jet pack in midair, flying up toward the top of the Power Core. It was probably best to take out the receiving end, as the power surge resulting would wipe out the rest of the station quite efficiently...

Something struck her from the side, tackling her into a nearby wall. Immediately Samus switched off her jet pack and activated her magnetic boots. Now standing on the wall, Samus grappled with her attacker briefly before hurling whatever it was away.

As it flew through the air, the vaguely humanoid alien caught a hold of one of the railings on a lower catwalk, swinging itself around. Flipping through the air, it landed on the catwalk. Somewhat surprised, Samus let herself drop to the nearest catwalk and glanced down at this strange being that had attacked her.

It leapt from the lower catwalk a second later, and to her shock, actually got up to her level with a swift kick. Barely turning aside, Samus managed to catch the attack, but it struck her hand with enough force to cause a bit of pain, even within the bio suit. So it was a powerful alien, then.

Bringing up her gun arm, Samus blasted the thing with a bolt directly in the chest. As it fell back, Samus got a better look. What it really looked like was a young human male that had somehow grown an exoskeleton. Could it be something mutated from all the experiments within the lab?

Just as the creature fell back on the catwalk, it suddenly jerked, pushing itself away from the metal grate and into the air. Its feet, which seemed to still be in boots, slammed into Samus' midriff. Fortunately, her bio suit instantly stabilized, absorbing the force and preventing her from being thrown back. The alien agilely landed on its feet just in time for Samus to smash an elbow into its face.

Putting aside thoughts of the being's relative humanity, Samus leveled her gun at it just as it fell against the railing. Before she could fire, however, it pushed itself off the railing and knocked her arm aside, ramming her in the side. Letting it knock her over, Samus fell back, then immediately whirled on the floor, taking its legs out from beneath it. Even as it was in the air, Samus continued to spin to her feet, slamming a kick into the alien. It was launched over the railing and fell far below.

Disturbing... very disturbing indeed. What had they been doing here? Turning from the catwalk, Samus again used her jet pack to get herself up to the top of the Power Core. Pulling a metal circle from her bio suit, Samus set it against the top of the Power Core and began to set the bomb.

Sweating, the scientist fell into the chair, breathing heavily for a few moments before reaching for the phone at his side. He held the receiver in his hands for a few moments, unwilling to make the call. But it had to be made. There were always sacrifices for any great cause, and he had no doubt that his cause was great.

Quickly dialing the number, the scientist waited as the phone rang...

He let the phone continue to ring, despite the fact that it was on his desk. This call would be an important one, that was certain. Only the most important individuals or issues had access to the private phone within his office. All other calls were handled by his secretary, and by "handled" he meant "ignored." None the less, he allowed the phone to continue ringing, giving the impression he was a very busy man who couldn't be bothered.

His office was worth thousands of Intergalactic Credits, and was extravagant by any standards. The walls were lined with plain, yet tasteful and expensive wallpaper, and dotted by the occasional priceless work of art. He himself hated art, but the art was there for a different reason. Each piece was carefully selected to further his image of a deep-thinking official. Most families could have lived for weeks on the money the thick carpeting was worth. In the center of the room, dimly lit, was the huge desk the man sat at. It was almost as if he was a part of the room, so well did his immaculate grey suit fit with the rest of the decor. Atop the desk there were assorted papers, as well as a plaque labeled "Richard Divel."

On the eighth ring Mr. Divel picked up the phone. Eight was a good number: enough to show that he was plenty busy, but not so many that it seemed he was inattentive.

"Yes?" he asked. On the opposite end of the line he heard heavy breathing.

"Mr. Divel, sir, this is Jamison, the science station was a disaster! We need to take extensive measures immediately!"

"Slow down," Mr. Divel responded calmly. "Explain what happened."

"It's as we feared sir, it's just like Station Ruby. This time it was worse, but we were ready for it."

"Will the situation be contained?"

"Well, yes, sir, but we have another problem. Samus knows more than she should, I think she's figuring out what's going on. When she comes back I'm gonna be forced to answer some tough questions. What can I say?"

Pausing for a moment, Mr. Divel considered his response carefully. "You are correct, drastic action must be taken. We cannot afford to have anyone as dangerous as Miss Aran working against us. Very well, I will handle it."

"What are you going to do, sir?"

"You don't need to know that, Jamison."

"Sorry, sir, I-" Mr. Divel set the phone down, ignoring whatever else was said. Jamison had served a useful purpose, and been helpful in the past, but at this point extreme measures had to be taken. Quickly tapping a few keys, Mr. Divel opened a panel in his desk, revealing a pale blue button. His hand hovered over it.

Sometimes, for a great cause, sacrifices had to be made...

Moving through the corridors toward the ship, Samus again went over her current condition. Though her bio suit had managed to repair most of the superficial damage taken, that mutated creature she'd ran into at the end had caused more extensive damage. Nothing that wouldn't repair automatically, but it would take quite a while.

Nothing got in her way as she moved to the ship, which was strange, considering how many monsters had plagued the station before. She was grateful for it, and didn't question the causes. Lately she'd had too much questioning to do. Along the way, Samus continued to think over all the evidence she had.

Reaching the ship after what seemed to be an eternity, Samus quickly moved through the hatch and into the ship. She was greeted by the group of scientists, all of whom were sitting around in the main lounge of the ship, as if weary from the day's adventures. They weren't through the woods yet.

"Alright, I want some answers," Samus announced to the group. They glanced at her nervously, quite a few of them looking as if they'd rather have seen one of the monsters on the station. Eventually a female scientist worked up her nerve and walked over to Samus.

"As near as we've been able to figure out, Miss Aran-"

"It's Samus."

"Yes, yes. Mistakes were made, the experiments went horribly wrong..."

"That doesn't exactly match your former story. What about..." Samus let the sentence trail off, cocking her head and listening carefully. She heard a faint whine, humming beneath all the ship's operations. A whine that should not have been there.

Suddenly she realized exactly what was happening, and immediately turned, making a break for the door. There was a bomb. She didn't want to think about why or how, but she knew this ship was going to blow and she didn't have long to get out. The doors connecting the ship to the station had already closed, but Samus blasted them open with a rocket, not slowing her run.

For a few moments the scientists milled about, confused and unsure as to what to do. Samus had just disappeared down the corridor when a nigh-cataclysmic explosion ripped through the ship. Dozens of minor explosions blasted through the ship, then the main Power Core exploded, destroying the entire ship in a hail of molten metal.

Inside the station, Samus let her breathing return to normal. That had been far too close. Only a few meters behind her was the endless expanse of space, framed by the destroyed remains of the corridor. Automatically Samus had switched to her own air supply. It would last her a few hours, long enough to let her find a portion of the station that still had air.

One thing she knew for certain: the ship had self destructed. Such an internal blast couldn't have come from anything external. Which meant one of two things, either a self-destruct feature had been activated, or there was sabotage of some sort. The former was unlikely... unless, of course, it had been triggered from a distant location...

"The bomb!" Samus suddenly exclaimed, unintentionally aloud. "C!"

She'd set it to blow in ten minutes, thinking she'd long be away from the station. Now she had a serious problem on her hands. Setting aside her frustration, Samus instead focused on how to get out of the situation. Her air supply and jet pack could probably get her to that planet nearby, but she would have to assume it was habitable. While there was a good chance of that, it wasn't a risk she wanted to take.

The answer was actually relatively simple, and it came to her in a swift revelation. All stations were equipped with escape pods of some sort, it was just a matter of finding them. Whirling, Samus took off down the corridor, trying to remember anything she had glimpsed in maps of the station. If it followed the basic model, the escape pods would be relatively nearby.

If any monsters remained inside the station, they were keeping their distance. Samus was more grateful for that fact than anything else. While she probably had a minute or so she could burn, the last thing she needed was a fight to sap her time.

Eventually Samus got through heavy blast doors that led to the main hanger. As she had expected, no ships were docked there, but there were a few escape pods built into one of the far walls of the station. Launching a grappling magnet across the chamber, Samus pulled herself to one of the escape pods.

Fiddling with the control panel, Samus discovered it was password protected.

"I do not have time for this..." she hissed. Nevertheless, no computer was completely safe. Pulling a small chip from her bio suit, Samus slid it into the terminal. In a few minutes the technological lock pick did its work, and the door to the shuttle opened. Taking time only to grab her computer chip, Samus practically dove into the escape pod and entered a course for the planet below.

Soon she was off, basically falling toward the planet. There was enough fuel in the escape pod to adjust her course if necessary, but little more. The rations within were probably enough to sustain her for a few months, but beyond that she could have a problem. Assuming the planet was inhabitable, however, she could probably send out a distress signal and get off the planet before that occurred.

Looking out the back window of the escape pod, Samus watched the station silently as it retreated into the night sky. Without warning, an explosion ripped the station apart, flames blasting through space in every direction, lighting up the sky momentarily. The blast faded, leaving various surviving bits of metal to fly off in various directions. All that was left of the station was a bit of metal rubble, otherwise undistinguishable from the asteroid ring surrounding the planet.

With a heavy sigh, Samus returned to the front window of the escape pod. The planet loomed beneath, she would come into contact with its atmosphere in under a minute. It was mostly reddish, and a rather large planet for this solar system. No matter, as it didn't appear to be that bad.

Tapping a few keys on the computer terminal, Samus brought up a brief diagnostic of the planet before her. Surprisingly, it had a breathable air supply, and was relatively habitable to human life. Still, there was probably a high degree of radiation, and temperatures seemed to be unnaturally cold. At the moment the bounty hunter was merely grateful she could survive there. It made sense, though, if aliens had originated from the planet it would be relatively hospitable.

"Commencing entry," the ship's voice stated. Sitting down in the chair, Samus strapped herself in and braced for the ride.

The instant they struck the atmosphere, Samus knew it was going to be a difficult journey. All of the shuttle craft began to shake, vibrating slightly and then more as they moved through the atmosphere. Computer scans revealed that the atmosphere was a bit thicker than normal air, resulting in greater resistance.

Gritting her teeth, Samus grimly watched the heat levels of the outside of the craft rise. At this point, there was nothing she could do except wait and hope. It would be so ironic, to die now, after having made it through dozens of monsters and two giant explosions.

Lights began to dim as the outside of the craft began to take heavy damage. In any case, this ship would hardly be space-worthy if it managed to make it to the planet. Everything began to shake harder, and it seemed as if the ship would break apart into every separate component at any moment. Bracing herself, Samus closed her eyes and waited.

A shudder ran through the ship, throwing Samus back against her seat with incredible force. Metal grating against metal was all Samus could hear for a few seconds as the escape pod smashed through the ground. Eventually it came to a stop and Samus breathed a deep sigh of relief: she had made it.

Opening the hatch, Samus crawled from the escape pod and to the planet surface. Planting her feet on the ground, Samus glanced about. Around her was nothing but a desolate landscape, nothing visible as far as the eye could see. A fierce wind whipped past her, blowing sand against her bio suit. The temperature was horribly cold for a while before the bio suit adapted, returning her to a comfortable temperature.

Great. Just great. This was one of the most desolate planets Samus had ever been on. While her ship was still functioning, it undoubtedly couldn't fly. Perhaps she could broadcast an SOS signal and hope someone could find her. Meanwhile, it was a matter of finding better shelter. This was far too open for her tastes.

Locking the escape pod behind her, Samus began walking, in a random direction. All that mattered was not getting lost, but her bio suit's sensors would take care of that. As she went, Samus recorded everything, to make a rough map of the area around her crash site. This situation could become messy quickly. Very messy.


	4. Puzzle Pieces

This chapter marks a temporary but very real shift in the story. I felt is was absolutely necessary to include the "trapped on an empty planet" cliche (or else it wouldn't feel like a real Metroid story) but it will not absorb the entire story by any means.

-

Chapter 4: Puzzle Pieces

Just as Samus was beginning to consider turning back and exploring in another direction, she spotted something on the horizon. It was small and low to the ground, but against the blank landscape it stood out like a sore thumb. Picking up her pace, Samus began to jog lightly in that direction. Anything was a welcome change from the endless monotony.

Reaching the object, Samus discovered to her mild surprise that it was a person. They were lying face down, as if they had collapsed there and remained. Briefly Samus considered the situation, standing over the body. Why would another person be here? Was it possible they were still alive? Switching visor modes, Samus discovered there was yet heat emanating from the body. In an environment this cold that could only mean they were still alive.

Bending down beside the body, Samus rolled it over to face the sky. Obviously, they were unconscious, and in bad condition. He was a young man, probably about her age. Horrible burns covered his body, undoubtedly gained coming through the atmosphere. His clothes were scorched, but had been loose black pants and a white shirt. Black locks hung about his face, covered in dust. As a disinterested observer (as only years of apathy can create), Samus noted he was pretty good-looking.

Was it possible someone else survived? One of the scientists might have also gotten off the ship, or never been on it. It was reasonable to believe that one of them could have reached an escape pod as well. A better question was who he was. Of course, all of that was irrelevant if he died.

Hoisting him up onto her shoulder, Samus carried the limp body back to the escape pod. There, at least, he might have a shot at making it. Though she was hardly an expert in the field, Samus knew a few things about medicine, and could probably use what the escape pod had on hand to help him a bit. Then again, two mouths to feed meant only half the survival time. In the end, Samus decided to let fate make the decision. It wasn't her right to determine the fate of a human life. Not, at least, like this.

.

Gently setting him down on the floor of the escape pod, Samus moved to the storage cabinets. Fortunately, they'd remained entirely intact. She would have preferred the engine remain intact any day, but she'd take what she could get. Gathering what she needed, Samus moved back to her strange new arrival. Bending beside him, Samus shifted her arms to a different mode, guns separating and pulling away to allow her hands to be free.

Taking off his shirt, Samus administered salve to his wounds. He had been burned pretty badly, though it didn't appear that he had any internal damage. While that was good, it'd probably leave a lot of scar tissue, if it healed at all. She was unlikely to need any of these medical supplies, however, so it was just as well to use them now.

Wrapping bandages around his arm and chest, Samus pinned them together and called it good. At the moment, that was about all she could do, other than keep him inside the escape pod. It was bitterly cold out there; she didn't know how he had survived even as long as he had.

Searching back into her memory, Samus struggled to identify him with one of the group of scientists, but failed to do so. In fact, she couldn't seem to remember him from anywhere, though that was to be expected. Somehow, though, she would have thought she had to have seen him at some point.

A new thought occurred to her. Could he possibly be from the space station itself, not the team of scientists sent there? That would explain how he had gotten access to an escape pod, and why she didn't recognize him. How he had survived she wasn't sure, but that was a more likely theory than any other she had come up with.

Turning, Samus left the escape pod, going back into the whirling sands. The hatch closed behind her, plunging the room into darkness.

.

Sitting back in the chair at the cockpit of the escape pod, Samus merely watched her comatose visitor. He hadn't moved at all since she had brought him in, several days ago. Still, he hadn't shown any bad signs, either. Actually, he was healing at pretty fast rate, and most of his burns were gone now. She hoped there wasn't internal damage that she couldn't see.

In these few days Samus had searched the entire area around for a few kilometers, and now had a rough map of it stored within her bio suit's memory. There was very little around them, as they appeared to be in this planet's equivalent of a desert. She had found what appeared to be a cavernous area, but she didn't want to enter it unless she had to. Not until she didn't have to check on her patient, at least.

Samus glanced at him from over her lightly touching fingers. Now that she had nothing else to explore, she had little else to do. That, and speculate as to where he had came from. She had thought up dozens of theories in these few days, some of them quite irrational and ridiculous.

Foremost on her list was still the theory that he was a scientist from the station. Almost everything made sense in that context. Then again, Samus acknowledged she might favor that theory because it would benefit her the most. If it were so, he could explain to her what exactly was going on. For that matter, he could probably help her get off this mudball. So perhaps it was merely wishful thinking. There were facts that contradicted her thoughts; for example: he was built more like a fighter than a scientist, and most scientists would have died almost immediately in such a harsh environment.

Such speculation was irrelevant, but it provided Samus with a bit of amusement. Temporarily bored with such things, she began fiddling with modes of her visor, seeing how the world looked through different eyes. By this point her suit had repaired itself, and all systems were back online.

His life signs were stronger, and he was generating a lot more heat than he originally had when she had found him. Just by habit, Samus switched to Darklight mode, and was surprised at what she saw. The entire escape pod had low levels of contamination, but all of his body glowed a soft green. Raising an eyebrow, Samus returned to her normal mode of vision.

Did that mean he was saturated by nega-photon radiation? Was that sort of thing lethal? It actually fit very well with her theory: anyone who worked in such a laboratory would have been exposed. Then again, he seemed to have especially high levels.

Shrugging, Samus got to her feet. She was getting tired of sitting around, and desperately needed to do something. Leaving the ship, she left him again in darkness.

.

One day as Samus sat observing, as had become routine, she thought she saw a flicker of movement. Blinking, she looked again, and saw nothing. Suspicious, however, Samus watched closer, rising to her feet and constructing the gun around her right hand. There was a long moment of silence, then his eyes flickered open.

They were an intense, pure blue. She'd always wondered what color of eyes he had, as they'd been closed ever since she first met him. Those eyes focused on her, and with a cry he propelled himself back, where he slammed into the opposite wall. The impact obviously pained him, as he gasped just slightly, like a person who was fighting not to scream.

"Calm down!" Samus ordered. "I'm not going to hurt you!"

For a moment he looked like a cornered animal, then some amount of reason became evident in his expression. Eventually his muscles relaxed, and he nodded slowly.

"Who..." his voice cracked, having not been used in some time. Coughing briefly, he tried again. "Who are you?"

"Samus Aran." Might as well be truthful about it now. If he was a jerk and she had to shoot him, well, best get it over with. He merely paused, nodding slightly, then began to glance around the inside of the escape pod.

"You... saved my life?"

"You were in a bad way," Samus said by way of answer. "I found you badly burned and nearly dead out in the wastes, then got you here. You've actually recovered more quickly than I expected."

"Where are we?"

"Big planet I don't know the name of. The one the station was orbiting."

"Oh!" His eyes widened suddenly. They glistened slightly sadly as memories returned. "The station... I take it the Power Core got destroyed by something?"

Blinking slightly, Samus nodded. He was a quick one.

"But why are you here?" he asked. Samus raised a hand.

"Just one second. I'm not answering any of your questions until I find out a bit about you. Who exactly are you and why are you here?"

"I'm in no position to demand," he answered tentatively, "but could I have something to eat?"

"Oh... right. You're probably thirsty as h, too. Yeah, I'll get you something." i _Pretty inconsiderate of you, /i _ Samus told herself, getting a few rations and a water canteen and tossing them down to him. Gratefully he opened them, consuming the contents at a measured rate.

"My name is Tal," he said between bites. "I haven't ever done anything important so I don't know why you'd know me. I guess you could call me a scientist of sorts, though I'm no professional."

"How is that?" Samus asked, pulse quickening just slightly. Could he really be from the station? Could her questions finally get answered?

"I grew up entirely around scientists, so I picked up a few things. But I'd rather not talk about that."

"I understand." She understood all too well about not wanting to get into the past. "But how did you get here?"

"I was on the space station for another reason," he answered, first taking a long drink of water. "That was when everything got chaotic. You detonated the core, at least I assume it was you, and I recognized the station was going to implode and got away. Entry to the atmosphere did a lot of damage to me and you know the rest of the story."

"I see." So he had nothing to do with them. She wasn't sure if she should be happy or disappointed about that.

"You aren't associated with that science station, are you?" Tal asked. Samus quickly shook her head.

"I was hired to protect a group of scientists investigating the station, nothing more. To be honest, I have a lot of questions for them."

"I know what you mean." For a second Tal closed his eyes, as if remembering things he didn't want to. When he opened them he sat back, apparently sated after finishing the rations. "What's our current situation?" he asked, running a hand through his dark black locks. Now that he was healthy, their luster had returned.

"Well, we're marooned on a desolate planet. The escape pod I used to get here will never fly again, though it's still mostly intact. I'm using the radio to transmit an SOS signal, but I'm not too sure it will reach anyone, if anyone would even care enough to stop."

"I see." Getting to his feet, Tal glanced around for his shirt and put it on when he found it. "I want to see the damage to the ship for myself."

"Alright. I'll warn you, it's cold."

"I'm used to it," Tal responded. Shrugging, Samus opened the hatch, letting the chill winds sweep into the escape pod. Tal quickly exited, and Samus was right behind him.

i _What are you, crazy? /i _ she asked herself. _ i You're already somewhat trusting this guy, and yet you've barely known him for a few minutes. And none of the time he was unconscious counts. /i _ Still, Samus got the feeling she could trust Tal. He seemed too simple to lie about things. That didn't mean she wouldn't watch her back, but still.

Reaching the back of the ship and bending down, Tal ran a critical eye over the damage. Samus remained standing behind him, interested in what he would observe. This might say a lot about him. Eventually Tal shook his head and returned to his feet.

"You're right, this won't fly again. Your energy couplets burnt out, and most of the difriblia cords were trashed when you struck the planet."

"Are you a mechanic or something?" Samus asked. She knew what he was talking about, but never would she have casually made those observations.

"Like I said, I grew up around scientists. I'm used to technology. So, what are we going to do?"

"I'm not sure," Samus answered truthfully. "I was kind of hoping another ship would come or we could find a way off."

"Ah." Tal paused for a moment, closing his eyes to think. "We might be able to repair some of the ship. If we removed the last portion, we could probably make something stable enough to fly us to the nearest point of civilization. Then again, there are some parts I don't think I can jury rig."

"Do you think there's any hope?" Samus asked, trusting his judgement. Perhaps saving his life would benefit her after all.

"Perhaps. Before falling unconscious after I landed, I thought I saw the ruins of a place that might have formerly been inhabited. When we need some more advanced parts, we might try to check it out."

"Where was it?"

"I'm not sure how far I got. Quite some distance in the direction you found me."

"I see. Want to give it a shot?"

Smiling just slightly, Tal nodded. "Let's do it."

.

Looking around the inside of the escape pod, Samus zeroed in on the storage unit and began rooting through everything within. It had to be in here somewhere. At least she hoped it was. If it was anywhere, it would probably be in the storage unit. Finally Samus found a box of tools, and took it out, quickly looking through the contents.

"A sprite jack," she muttered to herself, "what's a sprite jack?" Though it wasn't a tool she had ever heard of, Samus knew enough about spaceship repair to make an educated guess. Taking a small tool that looked like a tuning fork on technological steroids from the box, Samus turned to leave the escape pod.

Tal had proven to be an incredible asset. While Samus possessed no small amount of technical skill, Tal worked as one who knew technology very well. Their areas of expertise were separate but complementary. The more optimistic part of Samus thought it possible they might get this heap of trash to fly.

Emerging from the hatch, Samus walked around to the back of the ship, where Tal was busily working at the wiring within. The fierce wind whipped his clothing about him violently, but Tal ignored it. She wondered how he stood the cold. From her bio suit's scans, she knew that he was freezing cold, yet he didn't ever mention it. Quite a high pain threshold, for a scientist. By large, she'd found scientists were a weak lot; but Tal didn't quite fit into that category.

"Is this it?" she asked. Glancing up, Tal took the sprite jack and nodded.

"Right."

Bending down near the side of the ship, Samus continued working as she had before. Opening a panel of the stabilizing engine, Samus picked up where she had left off trying to reconnect the burnt connection cables. It was difficult, but Tal was a master of finding unnecessary parts and using them elsewhere. At the moment she had enough wiring to do the job.

"How does it look?" Samus asked, continuing to work.

"A bit worse than I thought," Tal answered, as blatantly truthful as always. "I'm not sure we have enough resources to do the job. In any case, there are three parts that I really can't replace. We'll have to hope we can find the ruins of something on this planet. Everything else I think we can jury rig."

"Good."

They ceased conversation for quite some time, both working noiselessly, having nothing to say. It often went like this, and Samus was grateful. Tal seemed to be an introverted type, which meant he kept his mouth shut, a trait that worked for her just fine. Only the wind continued to howl around them. In a way, it was relaxing.

"You stated that you had been hired to help a group of scientists investigate the station," Tal spoke up. "Are you a bounty hunter?"

"What?" Samus glanced up from her work involuntarily. "I'm Samus Aran."

Looking up from his work as well, Tal returned her glance blankly.

"You don't know who I am?" He shook his head.

"My life has been... well, I wouldn't use the word sheltered, but I've been cut off from most of the galaxy. I'm clueless about just about anything other than science or technology. Am I supposed to recognize the name?"

Of course he was. There were groups of people that shivered at the mention of the name. Space pirates had been known to surrender after hearing she was working against them. Over time, the number one ranked bounty hunter had become nearly legendary.

"No," Samus answered. "Not in particular. But yeah, I'm a bounty hunter."

"I see." Tal worked in silence a bit longer, but she could tell he was merely rearranging his thoughts. "Why did they hire you?"

"They lost contact with the research station, and they weren't sure what happened. They wanted protection for a team of scientists to examine the situation, and I've worked with them before. Why do you ask?"

"No reason in particular."

"You never did explain what your exact connection is to the research station. I have a lot of questions, and I'd like some answers."

"I'm not sure I can help you," Tal answered. "I'm still not sure I know what's going on. But I probably know a few things you don't."

"Good. Maybe between the two of us we actually know something."

"From what I've been able to determine, they were working on a variety of genetics experiments. It involved combining human DNA with-"

"Wait a second," Samus interjected. "How could they get away with that? The galaxy would be in an uproar. They barely let a law about the most minor DNA tampering pass a few years ago."

"Had you ever heard about this project before your mission?"

"Well... no." So that was how it was.

"The experiment is known as Project Darklight. Every detail surrounding it was considered top secret, a very limited few in the galaxy even heard rumors of its existence. Someone, I don't know who, had a lot of money and set this up without public knowledge. I'm not sure they had any kind of authorization."

"How do you know this?" Samus asked, believing him yet still a bit suspicious. Tal closed his eyes, pausing and collecting his thoughts.

"As I said, I grew up around scientists. I don't know who they were, but I know they were very high up in scientific communities. I've been on one of the other stations."

"Other stations?" Samus' eyes narrowed, but then softened. "I should stop interrupting and let you explain. Carry on."

"As nearly as I can tell, there were three research stations that took part in Project Darklight. They were named Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire, and each was performing similar experiments, though they shared technical data. What you just destroyed was Station Sapphire, the leader of the three."

"So now there are only two?"

"One." Tal paused again, continuing to fiddle with the panel before him. "A terrible... accident happened on Station Ruby. It was destroyed some time ago."

"Accident?" Samus probed.

"Listen," Tal sighed heavily. "That was the station I was at before. I'd rather not talk about it, okay?"

"Alright." Samus let the issue pass. She wondered exactly what had happened, but decided that such information was best left with Tal. Unless it became necessary for her to know it, of course. But she could understand issues from the past.

"One thing I haven't been able to figure out," Tal continued, "and it's really getting under my skin. Why is it called Project Darklight? I've heard the word used a few times, but it was far more high-level than I was allowed to hear. I would assume that a material of some sort, but I haven't been able to find out what."

"Before we went to the station, I was given something they called a Darklight Scope," Samus explained. "They say the experiments onboard involved a chemical that they didn't name. In any case, the chemical radiates nega-photons, and that's what the Darklight Scope is supposed to pick up."

"I see." Tal paled slightly. Samus took a deep breath, then pressed forward.

"I'm sorry. I've been meaning to tell you this, but I haven't had the nerve. The Darklight Scope registers that you're completely saturated in nega-photon energy. I'm not sure what exactly that will do... but I'm afraid it might result in your death."

"I see," Tal repeated slowly. "Well, there's nothing I can do to change that. Don't worry about me, trust me on this one."

"That's probably the safest attitude to have." A crazy attitude, though. Not many looked death in the face and shrugged.

They continued working in silence. Around them, the wind slowly picked up.


	5. Echos of the Past

Initially, many thanks to the reviewer who pointed out the multitude of clone reviews. I wasn't notified of even the first of them, and hadn't noticed. At this point they should be deleted, or at least the site claims that they were.

In regard to the last chapter's title, I believe it was justified. I never claimed that anything was coming together (though an observant reader will make connections long before the characters), merely that there were more puzzle pieces.

Poor dialogue? Interesting. To a certain degree I intended it to be such, and some of the dialogue's nature is very important. But if it is distracting, then it is clearly faulty, and should be changed. Were this a novel, I would work with that. Please tell me what you think of the dialogue in this chapter to see if it develops as it should. If the complaint remains through the next several chapters, then perhaps I should do some rewriting; I rarely settle for above par.

This chapter is somewhat of an experiment in an attempt to work with 's new uploading specs. The changes, which I had done inadequate research into, make my work look sloppier than it should.

Chapter 5: Echos of the Past

Affixing the metal line to the shattered power coupling, Tal soldered it together then glanced over his work. It would do, though he was pretty sure it would burn out after a few light-years. Samus didn't need more than a few, though. Pulling a gray roll of tape from the bag beside him, he began wrapping wire and coupling together in it.

Long ago, it had been called duct tape, he knew. Wonderfully useful stuff, for just about anything. This version was perfect for working with parts as sensitive as the engine of a spaceship, it was really quite fortunate that the escape pod had some. Then again, any escape pod without it would have been considered under-stocked.

The days had passed quickly, as Tal basically awoke, worked on the ship, then slept again, eating being no more than a sidelight. Their situation was overall good, he decided, but food stores were running a bit low by this point. If not for the escape pod's computer, he would long ago have lost track of time. In any case, he and Samus had been working together for quite a long time.

Of all the people he could have been stranded on a wasteland planet with, Samus now ranked highest on his list. Not that that meant anything, for the scum that he was familiar with. She was pretty good with tools, and also a wickedly good shot with the photon gun he knew was in her bio suit. It was also helpful she wasn't the most extroverted person, which could have made the situation unbearable. Tal could see she was an intelligent person, yet she didn't speak as if she held way too many degrees. Such a far cry from everyone he knew.

"You never really explained about your past," Samus spoke up, breaking the silence between them. "What happened?"

Tal sighed deeply. He had known this question would come up eventually; it was just a matter of how best to answer. "There isn't a lot to tell, because I don't remember a lot of my early childhood. I've mentioned it many times, but I'll say it again: I grew up around scientists."

"Yeah, you've said that. What about your parents?"

"I practically don't have any," Tal answered bleakly. "I have no idea who they are. Maybe some of the scientists were my parents, or maybe they died when I was very young; I'm not sure, I was never told. Even if they were there at the station, I never had any real parents. They're almost certainly dead now."

"Oh. Sorry for bringing that up."

"No, it's alright. I'm used to it, by this point. I've never really been around normal people, but I'm sure they'd think I'm pretty strange."

"You aren't that strange."

Glancing up, Tal looked at Samus carefully, but she was bending down inside the fuselage of the escape pod, working on something. She meant it, he knew. Small comfort.

"Thanks, I guess."

"There's no such thing as normal," Samus continued. "We're all human, aren't we?"

"I would certainly hope so."

"I'm afraid this is as far as we can go."

"What was that?" Samus asked, bringing her head out of the back of the escape pod.

"We've done all we can do with these parts. We need to find some real technology now."

"And you're certain you can't cobble together replacements?"

"I'm certain."

With a sigh Samus stood up completely. "Then I suppose we have to see if those ruins you were talking about have anything. Are you ready to go?"

"I'm fine." Tal shrugged. "If you're ready we can go now."

"Then let's go."

In silence they left the escape pod, closing and locking everything and then beginning the journey across the wastes. Samus's map didn't extend to the ruins Tal claimed he saw, but she had recorded where he had been found, so it would probably be easy to find them. It would be somewhat of a long trip, though, especially since Tal couldn't move as quickly as she could.

From the corner of her eye she watched him as they continued walking. Surprisingly, he had healed completely from his original injuries, his skin looked as if it had never been so horribly burned. He had a great healing system, Samus had to give him that. The icy wind blew sand past them, and Samus was certain it probably stung his skin. Yet, as always, he didn't complain, just braced himself and kept going. Admirable determination.

They went on this way in some time, neither speaking, both trudging forward. Eventually everything around started to look the same to Samus, though she trusted her internal mapping features. Just to prevent herself from being totally bored, Samus began monitoring the area around. Desolate, freezing cold, close to inhabitable to life. The air was probably hard on Tal's lungs, Samus realized; it was rougher than the air most humans breathed. Another thing he didn't complain about. Above most things, Samus hated a whiner; it was quite fortunate that things happened this way. If she had believed in fate, she might have thought it was destined.

"There." Tal's words broke through her thoughts. He was pointing toward the horizon. Seeing nothing, Samus raised an eyebrow, then switched her visor to binocular mode. Sure enough, she found herself looking at what appeared to be ruins of some sort of building. He must have had pretty sharp eyes to see it without enhancement.

"So it is," Samus agreed. "Let's hurry."

Both broke into a steady trot, and the building came quickly into view. It was pretty dilapidated, Samus realized, but very obviously the remnants of real technology. For that matter, it seemed to be relatively recent, too. Where had it come from? In any case, the ceiling was gone, and one of the walls was rubble.

Moving through the door, though it wasn't much of one, Samus glanced about the inside of the house. Sand had built up, over time, but she recognized many common items. It was as if this had once been a home. Everything seemed completely normal, as if the occupant had intended to come back soon and then forgotten.

"Oh." She turned to see what Tal had found. To her surprise, she found he was crouched on the ground, glancing at one of the fallen sections of the wall. Looking over his shoulder, Samus found that he was looking at something beneath the fallen rubble. A small lizard, the first life she had seen on this planet, was trapped beneath the stones, its tail firmly clamped in place by the remains of the wall. Seeing them, it hissed and struggled, but couldn't make its way free.

Getting to his feet, Tal gripped the side of the wall. Samus raised an eyebrow; he couldn't lift a stone wall, could he? ...never mind, he did it. The lizard instantly scurried away, now free. Within seconds it had vanished into the shifting sands, and Tal let the wall drop heavily.

"Well, that was sweet of you," she commented dryly, arms folded.

Turning, as if seeing her for the first time, Tal shrugged somewhat sheepishly. "It would have starved."

"I'm not questioning what you did. Just as long as it doesn't come back a lot bigger and try to eat us. Let's see if there's anything in here we can use."

Nodding, Tal moved into the house, and began to search through the bits of technology that remained within the house. Samus began poking around as well, but her mind was still on what had happened. She hadn't really expected him to be the sort to do something like that, and she wasn't sure what she thought of it. More interesting was the fact that he had lifted a stone wall by himself. Of course, she could have, but to lift a wall without any sort of assistance was a feat most humans weren't capable of. Interesting.

Those thoughts fell from her mind as she spotted something on a counter. It was a data recording device, she recognized, if a somewhat old one. Picking it up, Samus thumbed the power button, just out of curiosity. The screen flickered on and off a bit, then remained on with a sickly green glow. Obviously it didn't have a lot of power left.

Quickly looking at what was stored, Samus found it seemed to be an electronic journal, probably written by whoever had lived in this house. She quickly opened the first entry.

_The escape pod malfunctioned today, we're not sure what all that entails. There's still food to last for four days, but I hope we don't need all of it. Adam managed to salvage the radio portion of the ship, and he's continued to send a distress signal. The computer said there was a station floating around the planet, but its ignored everything we've sent, so it must be a mistake or something._

_I hope things don't go too bad. With three mouths to feed our supplies are running out very quickly. Using the remains of the pod and anything we can get our hands on, we're constructing a makeshift home..._

Ignoring the rest of the message, Samus scrolled down to a more recent one. She didn't have any time to learn useless information, she needed to know more about this planet. Something caught her eye, and she scrolled back to read the entry.

_We've found a set of caves some few kilometers east from here. Adam thinks there might be a former civilization within them, but I'm hesitant. Then again, I didn't go with them, so I can't be certain. They want to go again, but I'm going to put my foot down. Our gas masks are being worn down by this planet's atmosphere, and I want to save them for a more important time._

_I think all of us have given up on any sort of rescue. They keep the radio going anyway. What does that mean for us? Why do we keep going? I think..._

Interesting. Samus nodded slowly, tucking that information away. A few kilometers east, about where she'd found caverns; she'd have to remember that. Quickly she flipped to the last entry and began reading.

_Call me morbid, but I think this will be my last entry. If I see another day, I'll be surprised. We're out of food, and they haven't been able to scavenge for any more. Like I said in my previous letter, I'm starving. Joey is still dealing with the same feelings I was referring to earlier. This could be the end._

_They tried to go to the caverns again, against my best wishes. This time, they barely came back alive. I demanded they tell me what happened, but they wouldn't tell me anything. Adam had three bloody gashes across his chest, but wouldn't tell me how it happened. I've been seeing things at night lately, and I'm getting worried._

_I'm cold all the time, they tell me it's hypothermia. We're all so very cold. And hungry. The gas masks failed, and now it hurts to breath any time. Living hurts. I'm not sure I want to-_

The recording device blipped out, running out of power. Cursing, Samus smacked the power cell and gave it another shot, but apparently it was completely out of power. That was alright, though, she had gotten some useful information out of it. Setting it down, Samus glanced back around the house to see if there was anything she could do.

Tal was standing by the door, carrying a number of parts. Guiltily Samus realized that she hadn't helped him actually find anything. He didn't seem accusing, though, and she merely followed him as they existed the house.

"Did you find everything?" she asked. He shrugged.

"Enough to make the ship fly, but I wouldn't want to risk it unless we absolutely had to. We have no stabilizers, and we're missing a navigational system that works properly. Also, what I'm going to use as an internal pressure gauge I got from a toaster, so there's a chance the ship will spontaneously combust on us."

"...I see."

"If necessary, we could try to fly it. But if I can find more parts, that'd be safer."

"Ah, I might be able to help you there. The occupants of the house wrote something about a cave a ways away; they think that it had some sort of technology in it. We could go there."

"Is that what you were looking at?"

"Yeah."

"Well, good work. After we get those parts installed, we should check that out."

They moved on in silence for some time, then Samus decided to ask the question. "Aren't you cold? Doesn't this air hurt you?"

Blinking a few times, Tal cocked his head to one side and then nodded. "Yeah, it hurts. I have a very high tolerance for pain, though, I'll be alright."

"Really? That's odd, for someone who grew up around scientists."

"It is, isn't it?" Tal responded, telling her absolutely nothing. When she glanced at him, though, she saw his eyes were pained, and decided not to press the issue. As soon as they got off this planet, though, she was interested in figuring out a bit more about all this. They continued on in silence.

"Do you want to risk it then?"

Samus merely nodded. "We have enough food for a few days yet, and I don't want to take any unnecessary risks. If there really is more technology we can use in those caves, we need it. And if there isn't, we haven't lost much."

"Good point. Let's go."

Silence passed easily between them, a fact Samus was again grateful for. Quickly they collected everything necessary, and then they began the trip to the caves. It was a long way there, considering they had to return to the house, then make their way using fuzzy directions. Once fully prepared, they set off.

There had only been three living things on the planet up to this point, Samus reflected. Herself, Tal and that one lizard. Surely a planet as close to a Terran world as this would support more life than that. Then again, most alien life Samus had run into was pretty hostile, so perhaps that was just a blessing.

Nothing happened along the way, another blessing. Eventually they spotted a land formation ahead, and Samus quickly discovered it was the opening to something, via her binocular vision. Now with a goal in mind, they picked up the pace, quickly reaching their destination.

It was a rocky formation that jutted up from the ground, a rare sight on this planet. Quickly marking its location on her map, Samus began looking around it. The formation's most obvious characteristic, however, was a large hole in the side that quickly descended into the earth. Inspecting it closer, Samus immediately noticed that it was too angular, too artificial a construct. Soon after, she recognized it for what it was: a mineshaft. This explained why there was some inhabitation of this planet, and offered a much better chance of actual technology.

Clapping a hand on Tal's shoulder just as he was about to walk in, Samus stopped him. He glanced at her questioningly. In answer, Samus pulled a hand-held energy pistol from her bio suit and handed it to him.

"Just in case," she answered before he could ask. "You can never be too sure in abandoned mines. Sometimes they were abandoned for a reason." His expression continued to be blank. "You do know how to use one of these, right?"

"I haven't a clue," Tal responded. At least he was holding it in the right direction.

"Really? You've never seen an energy pistol before?"

"Never."

Rolling her eyes, Samus took it from him, then aimed it properly. "Keep the safety engaged at most times so you can keep your finger on the trigger. When you need to fire, shift this switch to the left. This is a semi-automatic, so all you have to worry about it not making the barrel overheat. I'll just have to hope you can aim. Does that make sense?"

"Sense enough," Tal took the gun back. "Let's just hope I don't have to use it."

"That sounds like a much better option."

Without further conversation they entered the mine shaft, which quickly dropped down beneath the surface. Within minutes it became too dark to see, so Samus switched on her bio suits exploratory lights. Surprisingly boring, for an abandoned mine, Samus found herself thinking. She was used to such places being dangerous and monster-infested. Not everywhere in the universe was dangerous, she reminded herself.

Ironically, this came the very moment that Tal yelled "Look out!" pointing down a shaft to their right. Even caught off guard, Samus turned, saw the alien flying in their direction and got off a shot before Tal had time to raise his gun. One was enough to take down the tentacled beast, which instantly crashed to the floor. A bit shocked, Tal glanced at her, both eyebrows raised.

"That's what it means to be a good bounty hunter, huh?"

"Affirmative. Stay alert. If there was one, there are probably more. This type likes to hunt in packs."

"Ssh!" Tal held a finger to his lips, and Samus instantly shut up. What was this? After a moment, Tal nodded. "There are more coming down the shafts above us. Crawlers of some sort, if I hear them properly."

Cocking her head, Samus failed to hear anything. Shrugging, she primed an explosive, then latched it onto the overhead shaft he referred to.

"I'll just trust you on this one."

"More!" Tal informed her grimly. "Coming from every direction but where we came."

Eyes tightening, Samus leveled both barrels toward the open passageway. It seemed things always went like this. There probably weren't too many, but she couldn't use her more powerful weapons for fear of bringing the mine down around them, and Tal was an extra liability.

Soon Samus could hear the scratching as well, obviously monsters moving toward them. The instant she spotted some alien life forms in the shaft above them, she triggered the bomb, completely wiping out the shaft. One less problem to worry about.

Then they came, running in waves from nearby shafts connecting to the room Samus and Tal had entered. It was a bad spot for a battle, Samus reflected, as their opponents could come from several directions. As soon as they came within range, Samus began firing into the crowd, taking out as many as possible.

Tal fired as well. Samus almost winced at the inaccuracy of his shots, but there were so many targets flooding the corridors he was almost guaranteed to hit something. Very quickly, however, the wave of aliens overcame them, forcing evasive action. Activating her jet packs, Samus flew herself to the ceiling, got a good grip, and began firing down below. Seconds later, she realized she had left Tal against the monsters alone, but realized with relief that he had leapt away, landing on a level a bit higher. He wasn't completely defenseless, then.

Unfortunately, he also wasn't looking behind him. Just as the creature raised its claw, Samus shot from across the room, her energy bolt nearly touching Tal's shoulder and destroying the alien behind him. He nodded to her in thanks and kept firing. Good.

The battle was swift and brutal. Samus only had to worry about picking off the flying aliens that came at her, as the rest weren't organized at all. Tal didn't hold his own, of course, but Samus only had to save his life four or five times. Not bad, given the circumstances. Letting go of the ceiling, Samus dropped to the ground, which was by now littered with alien bodies.

"Can we expect more of them?" Tal asked. Samus nodded grimly.

"There will be more. For now we're probably safe, but I'm sure we'll run into more aliens. But now that we know this is a mine, we can be certain there's probably technology we can use. We have to keep going."

"Makes sense to me."

Down they went, both now carrying weapons at ready. When she was honest with herself, Samus realized she was actually happy now that there was something to shoot. It had been so long, she had worried her aim was getting rusty. Apparently not, though. Now that there was a bit of danger, however, she was in a much better mood.

They entered a long, thin corridor that stretched on for some time. Already Samus had a pretty good map of the mines they had explored built into her bio suit. Unfortunately, at this point they hadn't run into anything useful. That was somewhat strange for an abandoned mine like this.

"Behind us," Tal whispered to her. Without hesitation Samus whirled and planted a shot through the alien following them down the corridor. Checking there were no more, Samus again turned, then raised an eyebrow at Tal. Realizing he couldn't see it, she instead vocalized her confusion.

"What was that about?"

"I knew there was an alien life form behind us, but I'm a horrible shot. I figured you could do it better than I."

Shrugging, Samus continued on. If not exactly good with a weapon, Tal was certainly useful for his senses. Pretty sharp, to have heard it all the way back there. Perhaps even useful enough to make up for the liability that he was.

Nothing else attacked them for some time, and they made their way into a large open room. It appeared empty, but Samus had long ago learned that appearances could be deceiving. Or outright lies, depending on where they came from. Just to check, Samus flipped to thermal view, and was surprised by what she saw.

"S---!" she yelled. "Jump aside!"

Both of them leapt in opposite directions, to opposite walls of the room. Soon after, the golden rift Samus had seen in the rock split open, and molten lava flowed from the rock, directly down the center of the room. How fortunate it registered quite nicely on her thermal sensors. This caused another problem, however, as she realized they were now on opposite sides of a flowing river of lava.

On the opposite side, Tal shrugged. "What now?"

"Wait a second," Samus yelled back. "I'll fly across the lava flow, then-"

She never got to finish her sentence. The lava had managed to burn away the supports for much of the ceiling, and several tons of rock smashed into the lava, creating what was in effect a stone wall between them. Lava splattered, and Samus quickly backpedaled, avoiding most of it. A bit struck her bio suit, causing some damage, but it was quickly shaken off.

D---! Now Tal was trapped on the opposite side. Her bio suit protected her from the excessive heat radiating from the lava, but Tal didn't have any protection. Something more grim occurred to Samus, and she swore loudly. Without the light from her suit, Tal was completely blind. With her luck, there were probably monsters nearby.

Never having been one to waste time being angry, Samus switched one arm of her bio suit to drill mode and began working on the wall. It was weak rock, fortunately, but she had to drill her way through a lot of it. Gritting her teeth, Samus set herself to the task.


	6. Complications

No reviews. Disappointing; though that is hardly my motivation for writing. This chapter contains something that I certainly would hope people would comment upon, regardless of surprise or lack thereof. Fairly obviously, it's an important chapter in the story.

Chapter 6: Complications

Straightening his suit, Mr. Divel took a deep breath, then picked up the phone. Tapping one of the preprogrammed numbers, he waited while a secure connection was formed. All his channels were heavily encrypted; while it was an obnoxious use of time, it was absolutely essential.

"Yes, sir?" a voice came from the other end. It was monotone, carefully modulated to betray nothing of the speakers identity. Such it always was with private detectives.

"Full status report of the investigation. Now," Mr. Divel demanded.

"We have still been completely unable to find any evidence as to the destructions of Stations Ruby or Sapphire," the voice complied instantly. "I believe that had the investigative team been able to return their findings from Station Sapphire, we would have some true information."

"Sacrifices must be made."

"I'm not arguing the point, sir. Unfortunately, it appears your bounty hunter did her job, and Station Sapphire was destroyed completely. I've noticed some similarities between the destruction of both stations, leading me to believe that both were destroyed by causing terminal errors in the Power Core that destroyed the station."

"What does that tell us?"

"Basically nothing, sir. Only that someone from within Station Ruby destroyed it."

"I see. Carry on."

"Station Emerald is under heavy guard per request, sir."

"Did either station go awry in their experiments? Were they outside their limits?"

"Well, sir, we can't be certain until we have real information. However, I do not believe so, everything appeared to be going according to the plan. There's only one other bit of relevant information, sir."

"What?"

"Station Ruby was experimenting on human life, and Station Sapphire was about to start. I don't know if that means anything to you, sir, but I thought you should know."

"I see. Thank you."

Hanging up quickly, Mr. Divel swivelled in his chair, looking out the window. Steepling his fingers before him, he let out a deep sigh. Human life? That meant nothing to him. Nothing at all...

Sensing she was mostly through the wall of rock, Samus stepped back and blasted her way through the rest of it. Jumping from the hole she had created, Samus glanced around the other side. Tal was nowhere to be seen.

Cursing, Samus found that there was one other passageway leading from this side. How had he found it, in complete darkness? For that matter, why had he left? Breaking into a steady run, Samus moved down the corridor, sweeping the area with her lights for any sign of him. He couldn't have made it too far, in theory.

Something flew in from the side, and Samus acted on instinct, dropping to the ground and rolling. Some manner of dart imbedded itself in the wall above her. Remaining in a curled formation, Samus rolled on, up the side of a wall, then transformed back in midair, guns blazing. Whatever it was fell to the ground.

Two other dart like objects flew toward her, and Samus barely ducked them. Her gaze eventually came to rest on an alien creature at the opposite end of the corridor. It was small, spiky and apparently throwing its spines at her. Jumping, Samus avoided a few more aimed at her feet. Quickly she fired a shot, and cursed as it bounced off the creature's armored body. Tough little monster.

Switching to gatling-gun mode, Samus sent wave after wave of small energy bolts at the creature. None of them did any damage, but they did manage to keep it from throwing any more darts. Meanwhile, Samus fired a rocket from her other arm. Bracing herself against the inferno that followed, the bounty hunter looked back into the corridor and was relieved to find nothing. Hopefully there had only been two of the beasts.

Suddenly a disturbing thought occurred to Samus. Tal had been on this side of the wall alone. He was a bad shot in the first place, but he wasn't packing anything powerful enough to fight this manner of monster. Cursing again, Samus picked up her pace, making her way down the corridor.

The room ahead of her was large and apparently empty, a fact that immediately made Samus suspicious. All across the room were signs of a battle: giant claw marks in the rock, burnt sections of ceiling and floor. There had obviously been a fight here, and quite a destructive one, from what she could see.

Attempting to flip to thermal mode, Samus accidently switched to Darklight mode. It worked just as well, as she found a brightly glowing green body in the room. Returning to normal vision as she rushed into the room, Samus found Tal slumped against a wall.

He raised his eyes toward her weakly, but at least they focused. Quickly Samus rushed to her fallen comrade and kneeled beside him. Apparently he had been involved in the battle, and probably on the losing side: his skin was bloody and occasionally little more than shreds. It appeared that nothing internal had been struck, but Samus recognized that he could easily die from loss of blood.

"What happened?" she asked worriedly. Tal shook his head slightly.

"Giant alien. Claws about two feet long. They hurt, just so you know."

"Well, you're being sarcastic. You can't be too hurt."

"Heh." Tal breathed heavily, and it was painful to watch. "I think I'll be alright, it decided to leave pretty quickly; I hurt it some, too. Just to tell you, normal weapons don't really work on it. Its reach is longer than it looks."

"Are you sure you'll-"

"Ssh." He silenced her. "This alien appears to have collected every metal object within the caverns, and it's holding them all not far from here. You know what we need, get it from there. As long as you kill it before it comes back, I'll be fine."

"How did you manage to hurt it? For that matter, how did you see in pitch black?"

"I was... creative. Excuse me, I'm a bit busy bleeding to death."

Somewhat chagrined, Samus quickly got to her feet. Tal was right, she had more important things to do than ask those questions. At the moment it was more important to find what they needed and make sure Tal stayed alive. After doing her best to bind his wounds, Samus set off down the only corridor that continued from this room. It was fortunate that there was only one; she wouldn't have wanted the alien to get Tal while she was away.

Abruptly something loomed in the corridor ahead of her. Screeching to a halt, Samus threw herself back, just as massive claws raked the air where she had been. Tal hadn't been kidding about it being dangerous. Just to test, Samus fired several shots into it; they struck relatively harmlessly. It began rushing toward her, but Samus fired rockets from both barrels.

The force of the explosions knocked the alien back a bit, though they did almost no damage. Samus had not, however, fired the rockets to cause damage. As soon as the smoke from the blasts cleared, Samus leveled her gun and fired a fully charged blast directly at the creature.

Blasted backward, the alien smashed through the narrow corridor and into a much larger room. Breaking into a run, Samus followed it, intending to finish it off before it could recover. Unfortunately, it did so much faster than she had expected, jumping off the ground and slashing her on the side. The bio suit took the damage, but Samus could tell it was extensive. Before it could slash again, Samus fired a shot directly in its eyes.

While it reeled, Samus rolled backward, getting out of the creature's range. They began to circle, watching each other carefully. There was a feral light of near intelligence in this creature's eyes, Samus realized, and it disturbed her. Several long gashes had been made in its hide, and Samus knew she hadn't caused them. How had Tal managed to do damage like that?

She had no more time to think, as the creature launched itself at her a second later. Samus ducked, but underestimated the length of its reach. Two more slashes were made in her bio suit. However, the creature was not familiar with fighting bounty hunters. Had it done so before, it would have known that you do not come into close physical contact with them. Fixing a bomb to the creature's hide, Samus leapt away from the situation.

Roaring, the creature turned to her. Waving goodbye cynically, Samus triggered the bomb, destroying the alien completely. After weathering the blast, Samus quickly assessed her condition. She had taken some heavy damage, especially the specific areas where the claw had struck. Some of it would heal, the rest might require repair. Most likely her left arm's weapon functions would be offline until she could get them fixed.

Remembering her purpose, Samus quickly moved into the next room. Here she found the cache of technology Tal had referred to. Finding what they needed as quickly as possible, Samus stored the things and then practically sprinted back to the room where Tal had been.

He hadn't moved, as was common for people with life-threatening injuries. Actually, he looked better than he had when she left. There was no blood on the ground, either, which was surprising for the injuries he had sustained. Apparently he had managed to keep it inside relatively well.

"Do you have it?" he asked. Samus nodded. Tal tried to get to his feet, but acknowledged defeat almost immediately. Shrugging, Samus picked him up and bolted down the corridor. The sooner they were out of this place the better.

Around her the world was nothing but shifting sand and a dull, never-ending landscape. Had it been practical and the air more breathable, Samus would have taken off her helmet and let the wind blow through her hair. That would be an irrational course of action, so of course she didn't.

A few days had passed since their excursion into the mines. Tal had recovered surprisingly well, and it didn't appear that he would keep any scars out of the experience. That was strange, Samus reflected; he didn't seem to scar easily at all. Meanwhile, she had managed to repair most of her bio suit. Both arms would function properly, but her left arm's Gatling and charging functions would be offline until she could get more high tech repairing. Her ammunition stores were running a bit low, she'd need to restock as well.

Fortunately, it probably wouldn't be too long before that could happen. After recovery Tal had immediately returned to the ship, now equipped with newer and better parts. Yesterday before going to sleep he had said something about just needing to fine tune a few things and then the ship would run. Then they could finally get off this mudball.

Most people probably thought she was dead, Samus reflected. The Galactic Council had most likely disavowed anything that had happened on the station, but it didn't matter. When a bounty hunter disappeared for such a long time, it was assumed they were gone. There were probably already rumors about her death, created with no factual base whatsoever. Well, she'd just have to prove them wrong; it would add to her reputation quite a bit.

_What's going to happen to Tal?_ she wondered. He was evidently still searching for answers, just as she was. This business with the three stations wasn't over yet, and Samus wasn't about to let them get away with not telling her anything. First thing she did after reequipping herself was go there and find out. Speaking of unanswered questions, Samus remembered for the first time some questions Tal had left open. What with healing and repairs they had slipped her mind, but now he had some questions to answer.

Turning to go back to the escape pod turned ship, Samus continued to think about her plans after leaving. Once she got this entire situation straightened out, then what? Most likely just back to Bounty Hunter HQ, to get another mission. That was her life; it was what she enjoyed doing. Sometimes, though, it felt just a bit futile.

Seeing something in the corner of her vision, Samus whirled just in time to be tackled by a large monster of some sort. It sent her flying back, smashing into the sand. Immediately whipping up a gun, Samus blew its head off, then kicked the body aside. Rising to her feet, Samus realized that there was more than just that one.

Some distance away there was a decent number of monsters, all rushing in her direction. That was unusual for this planet; Samus remained confused for some time until she recognized them as the same monsters they had fought in the mines. Had the remaining ones followed them?

Unfortunately for the monsters, Samus was completely aware of their presence, and no longer confined by the weak mine walls. Charging up a laser to full power, Samus abruptly turned and swept it across the ranks of monsters, wiping out most of them. They split up, some rushing past her and other swarming around her.

Launching herself into the air, Samus fired at them from above while airborne, then landed some distance away from the pack. Almost immediately some of them turned toward her, but Samus was already firing into them. Most of the monsters fell away before they crossed the distance between them.

One of the larger monsters rammed into Samus, flinging her backward. As she flew through the air, Samus smiled slightly. A few seconds later the monsters discovered why as the bomb she had left exploded, destroying the remainder of the monsters.

Landing and sinking a few inches into the sand, Samus returned to her feet. Strange that the monsters had followed them from the mines, and that they had waited until now to attack. Such thoughts were blown from her mind an instant later, as she realized she hadn't destroyed all the monsters. Some of them had gotten past her, and she knew exactly where they were going.

Muttering under her breath Samus took off for the ship, hoping she wasn't too late. There had been a good number of monsters that went past her, and Tal was completely defenseless. Hopefully he could escape them long enough for her to arrive.

Reaching the ship and circling around to the back side of it, Samus found a strange sight before her eyes. The monsters had indeed reached Tal before she could, but the results were quite different than she had imagined. Tal was standing, perfectly fine, and the ground around him was littered with alien bodies. All of them looked as though they had been shot by an energy weapon, a few were smoking lightly. There was nothing in Tal's hands.

Hearing her, he turned. They locked eyes for a few moments, neither saying anything. Tal's gaze was deeply and profoundly sorrowful.

"What happened?" Samus demanded. "How did all these aliens die?"

"I'm... sorry," was Tal's only answer. "I wish this didn't have to happen."

"What are you talking about?"

He said nothing, eyes still sad.

"You have a lot of questions to answer. How could you see in the dark? How did you manage to hurt that creature without your gun? And how did you do this?"

For a few moments Tal floundered, his look distinctly guilty. Abruptly it hardened, and his eyes focused on something behind her. Whirling, Samus found herself looking at a monster at her back, raising a claw to strike her. Before she could raise a weapon to destroy it, a bolt seared just over her shoulder, smashing into the creature and blasting it away.

Whipping her head back, Samus looked just in time to get a glimpse of Tal. His hand had been raised, and it had looked nothing like a hand. It had been more of a claw, and Samus couldn't get the image out of her head.

"What is this?" she demanded, anger beginning to rise. Tal sighed, then abruptly something changed. Before her eyes, a dark material emerged from Tal's skin. It spread out over him, and Samus realized it was actually the bones that made up an exoskeleton. They enveloped Tal, covering him with what was essentially a suit of armor. His hands became claws, just seconds before something came up from Tal's neck, extending around his head, leaving only his face visible.

In shock, Samus couldn't bring herself to move during the relatively brief transformation. Tal stood before her, completely unlike what he had been before, save the face. After a few seconds, Samus recognized why he looked so familiar: he had been the strange being she had fought on the research station! Questions ran through Samus' mind like water, and she found she had answers for none of them.

"I'm sorry," Tal repeated with a heavy sigh. "If it makes you feel any better, our fight on the station was an accident, I thought you were with them." He gestured at the escape pod. "The ship will fly now, it should take you to civilization nearby. I was hoping this wouldn't have to happen, but I guess all good things pass, don't they?"

Large, bat-like wings erupted from Tal's back, a dark ebony in color. They expanded out at least four feet on either side of him. With a powerful flap, the wings bore Tal into the air. For a moment he hung suspended there, his gaze haunting, then the exoskeleton closed over his face and he turned. In seconds, he vanished into the sky above.

Still stunned, Samus remained looking after him... it... him, for several seconds. Slowly her mind caught up with this rapid twist of events. Her mind blank and numb, Samus moved back into the ship, full of unanswered questions.


	7. A Series of Unrelated Events

I would apologize for the length of time between the previous chapter and the posting of this one, but that would be dishonest, as I am not really apologetic. However, it seems that few people cared, so it should be relatively harmless. With a reviewer questioning what was about to happen, I determined to add more of the story for their sake.

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Chapter 7: A Series of Unrelated Events

The ship lifted off, a bit shakily, true, but it was a miracle that it even got off the ground at all. Escape pods were designed to get a person to a planet, not to get them off. Somehow, this ship was actually flying, and flying better than a few of the crates Samus had seen in her lifetime. While she broke orbit, she had been very busy making sure everything was running properly, but now as she went about her long journey to Bounty Hunter HQ all Samus could do was think.

Leaning back in her chair, Samus sighed heavily. She began running through all the facts in her mind, to avoid the true confusion she was struggling with. There had been so many hints, but she hadn't ever caught on. Then again, she could be forgiven for that, as it would be unnatural to assume anything that bizarre.

Her first clues should have been Tal's unnatural recovery rate and resistence to low temperatures. This planet was hardly habitable, yet he'd lived in it easily. If that hadn't been enough, there was always his heightened sight and hearing.

His story also made a few other things come together, she realized. He had been unwilling to talk about details of why he was on the station... small wonder. That also explained why he had been so afraid of her at the beginning. She had, after all, thrown him off a catwalk. It was amazing he survived that fall, though he was evidently much tougher than a normal human.

What did all this mean about his story? Was it the truth or just a clever deceit he'd invented? Then again, it had seemed fragmented, and he seemed to be searching for the truth as well, so Samus decided to give him that one. He'd seemed honest enough.

The instant the thought entered her mind, Samus realized the danger and tried to force it away. Too late. Tal had seemed so honest and open, yet he had been far from it, apparently. Again, she couldn't really blame him. Still, she was completely in the dark about his motives. Why had he been on the station? Why had he helped her? It was obvious, considering that he had wings, that he didn't need the ship to leave. Any time during the days they had been building the ship, he could have killed her, Samus realized grimly. So his motives were probably mostly pure, if a bit confusing; that fit with her image of him.

Of course, that image had just been forced to undergo serious revisions. Whatever he was, it certainly wasn't human. Almost like a bizarre cross between alien life forms and human, Samus decided. Maybe that was part of his connection to the stations. It was possible that he had once been human. Then again, what made someone count as human?

In any case, he was far more than a simple scientist. However bad his aim may have been, his personal weapons seemed to be quite effective. Those momentarily took up her thoughts. When she'd first met him, he seemed basically like an armored human. This time, he'd been able to do far more. If he could do that much, why hadn't he when they fought on the station the first time? Then again, it was also possible he couldn't then.

Slowly Samus began to piece together some of the scientific reasoning behind things. Tal had appeared to be saturated in nega-photons, probably because he was. They were an intrinsic part of his being. That also explained why he was able to fire energy cannon like shots from his fingers; he must have obtained the alien ability to manipulate nega-photons. When he'd used them, it had obviously been pretty devastating.

And the wings... Samus shook her head, not wanting to think about the physics involved with that. How his exoskeleton could be beneath his skin and then slide out was beyond her. In retrospect, she realized his shoulders had been extremely well muscled, quite abnormal for a scientist. If he had wings, that made perfect sense.

That raised another entire question. Most of the time she had known him, Tal had appeared completely human, and acted normally. Either he'd originally been human, or gotten good acting lessons from somewhere. But which form was normal for him: the human or the alien? Did both then count as human or alien? At this point, did the distinction even matter?

With a deep sigh, Samus shook her head and pushed the thoughts out of her mind. Most likely, she'd never get any answers. Not unless she went after them herself, anyway. In this case, it just might be worth it...

Nearly dropping his coffee, David Anez rubbed his eyes and glanced at the screen again. It couldn't be. Completely bloody impossible. Setting down his mug, he checked to make sure the screen was working properly, then sat back in his chair in amazement.

The ship closing in on Bounty Hunter HQ was a small one; a heap of junk, from what he could tell. With the number of bounty hunters who came here, that wasn't at all unusual. What made this ship unique was the fact that it was broadcasting _Samus Aran's docking codes!_ A more than healthy obsession had caused David to memorize them, and now he saw them once more.

After mysteriously disappearing on a job she refused to tell anyone about, everyone had assumed that Samus was missing in action. Certainly, the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy would have finished the job by now. Rumors had began to circulate, as they always did, and for some time David ignored them. Eventually even he believed she had died.

Apparently he had been wrong. They had all been wrong. Wherever she had been, she was back, evidently now in a lemon ship. Getting up from his seat, David bolted for the door, heading for the loading docks. With any luck, he could be the first person to greet her when she stepped off the ship. Couldn't hurt.

"Holy c---, guys!" a voice came from behind him, one of the other bounty hunters who were watching all incoming ships. "Samus Aran is going to dock soon!"

Cursing, David picked up his pace. The idiot had to go and let everyone know about it, now they'd all be there to welcome her home. He had hoped to be the only one. Later on, when there were less important things on hand, he'd have to beat him for that.

There was no doubt that David Anez considered himself in love with Samus Aran. That put him in a rather massive group. He thought he was special... which pretty much put him in the same group. Like all of them, David was ignored completely. It was common knowledge that Samus was wedded to her work... which didn't really stop anyone.

"Where the h--- are you going?" a voice asked from the side. David let himself slow to a walk, he needed to do so anyway. Leaning against one of the pillars in the main lobby of Bounty Hunter HQ was Veronica. The very last person David wanted to see.

"Samus is coming!" another guy in David's footsteps piped up. Slapping himself on the forehead, David sighed at his stupidity. Veronica was the last person they needed to get involved. She and Samus had always had a fierce rivalry, but they'd never actually fought, so no one knew who was better. Any reunion would be much more sour with Veronica present.

Any other day, David would have been more than happy to have an extended conversation with Veronica, but not today. She was hot, sure, but Samus was hotter. All of them rushed onward.

By the time Samus actually docked the modified escape pod and opened the door, there was a small crowd waiting for her. The legendary bounty hunter raised an eyebrow, then calmly stepped from the ship, parting the crowds by force of will. As always, she was completely clothed in her bio suit, save for the helmet, which she held in one hand.

Instantly admirers converged on Samus, as she knew they would. Activating her jet packs, Samus burst out of the crowd, landing some distance away. It was against regulations to use jet packs in here, but Samus was important enough that she could get away with it. As soon as Samus hit the ground she continued walking, now behind the group. They were used to Samus' cold nature, however, and not the least put off.

None of them managed to keep up with her fast pace, and Samus quickly outdistanced all of them. Good. The Bounty Hunter Headquarters served a useful purpose, but Samus still hated going there. Hated most of the people on the station, too. That, she knew, only made her more interesting. An infuriating circle, really.

Reaching the repair center, Samus shouldered her way to the front of the line, flashing a rank A ID. Everyone parted quickly. The swarthy man at the counter was tinkering with a mechanical device on the table, and merely grunted at her approach.

"Wait yer tu-" his eye caught hers, and he straightened instantly. "Welcome back, Samus. What are you needing?"

"This suit was damage, particularly in the left arm. I want it repaired and restocked, as soon as possible."

"Certainly. Err... you can pay for this, right?"

"Put it on my tab, Bartholomew. It'll transfer from my account in a few days."

Nodding, the man gestured around the counter, waving her inside. Most of the time he was too cynical to accept anyone's credit, but Samus had never done him wrong. Unlike some bounty hunters, she adhered to her own moral code.

Stepping around the counter, Samus moved into the back room, where all the major repairs were performed. Undoing all safety latches, Samus deactivated the bio suit, carefully removing it and setting it on one of the somewhat clean tables. This left Samus clad in a simple grey body suit, which felt very exposed compared to armor.

Moving into the lobby, Samus sat down in one of the chairs. He would probably get around to repairing her bio suit pretty quickly, and once he got started it wouldn't take too long for it to be finished. Then it was back to the Galactic Council, for some answers. Until then, what could she prepare?

Tapping one of the communications panels next to the chair, Samus quickly tapped in the code for the main docking bay. There was a few seconds pause, then Samus heard a scuffling sound, probably indicating someone was coming. She raised the microphone to her lips and waited.

"Docking Bay A."

"This is Samus. I want my ship's arsenal restocked, and any repairs completed. It needs to be ready for takeoff in a few hours, at most. Set the main drive on insulate until I can get down there and handle it myself. There had better not be a scratch on it," Samus rattled off the order at surprising speed. It was one she had given many times before.

"Certainly, ma'am!" At least he was quick about it. Severing the connection, Samus allowed herself to sink into the chair and closed her eyes. What she really needed now was a bit of time to relax. Things would probably stay pretty intense as soon as she got to the Galactic Council outpost. It was time to straighten this situation out once and for all.

"Samus! Glad I caught up with you!"

Opening both eyes, Samus nearly growled in annoyance. This was not what she needed. Flickering a glance up, Samus realized that David had followed her all the way here. She remembered his name solely due to his tenacity and obnoxiousness. Her icy gaze managed to make him falter for a few minutes, but he just didn't give up.

"What happened to you?" he asked, dropping into the chair beside her.

"That's none of your business." Like that would stop him.

"No, really, I'm concerned for you!" Uh huh.

"Most of it's classified. After that, I got stuck on a deserted planet, and couldn't get off until I rigged that junker I was flying earlier." Best keep Tal out of this. No need to make things excessively complicated.

"Oh." David paused for a blessed moment, but Samus knew he would start running his mouth soon again. Some people just couldn't shut up. "Things have been pretty crazy here, too. Everyone seems to be doing short little missions, and people tell me it's like they're only doing part of a job. I've only done a fe-"

"You know," Samus cut him off, "I really don't care." He looked crestfallen, then rebounded and looked as though he was about to speak. "At all."

Getting to her feet while he was still momentarily put off, Samus quickly left the room. Surely she could get a bit of relaxation someplace...

The soft hum of the ship's engines quickly calmed Samus' nerves. Everything seemed to be coming together to put her at ease. This was her ship, and it was familiar: same engine tone, same soft chair, same console and instruments. It had been far too long since she'd been aboard her own ship, and now she felt at home again.

Just getting away from the Bounty Hunter HQ contributed to Samus' sense of well being. She always forgot how much she hated most people until she went back to HQ. Unfortunately, she had to work with people; the very nature of her job depended on it. At least most of her clients were business like: they needed something done, and she could do it. But everyone who lingered at HQ for a lengthy period had too much time on their hands, in her opinion. The few staff members onboard closest to being her friends were the ones who annoyed her the least.

Now that everything was as it should be, Samus felt much more comfortable making plans. First off, of course, was to get some answers from the Galactic Council. They had a lot of explaining to do, especially about the exploding ship. While she would have liked to believe no one would destroy so easily, experience taught her differently. Most likely, that project would take quite some time. But she wouldn't rest until it was resolved.

After that... things were more open. Eventually she'd take another job, though she could have lived off of only the money from this job for months. It was more about doing the work than the money. No... Samus decided that she had more important things to do at the moment, like going after Tal.

She assumed he was still on that planet, though as the thought occurred to her she realized that she could be wrong. Was it possible he had left? All normal humans needed air to breath... but Tal was hardly normal. He'd been able to handle extreme temperatures as well. Assuming that he could propel himself through space somehow, and nega-photons served that function nicely, he was probably as capable of going anywhere as a starship. It all depended on how fast he could move, and how much he needed to eat.

Useless speculation; Samus put it aside. She would handle that when it happened. Once more fully stocked and repaired, Samus felt prepared to take on just about anything. Which is why what followed was bad timing for someone else.

A warning light lit up on the dash, and a siren blared through the cockpit for a split second before Samus turned it off. Glancing at the screen, Samus discovered that she was being intercepted by three other ships. They'd be within firing range in about ten seconds, and the computer said their weapons were ready.

Strapping herself into the seat, Samus activated her manual controls. Wrapping her hands around the control shafts, the bounty hunter smiled malevolently. If they wanted to fight her, a fight they would get.

The instant they came within range, Samus dove directly down, avoiding the fire that lanced through the space where she had been. Spinning the ship around as quickly as possible and cutting her engines, Samus continued to hurtle backward, now while strafing the ships with fire of her own.

All three were shielded, and survived the blast. Again activating thrusters, Samus propelled her ship up, away from the ships. They were pirate vessels, she recognized now. Probably stolen from somewhere and heavily modified. Like most serious pirates, they were too well protected for her computer to scan them, but Samus was willing to bet all three were heavily armed.

Shifting power to forward shields, Samus broke into a barrel roll, breaking through the group of three ships. She took relatively little damage along the way, as she'd managed to surprise them. Curving upward, Samus doubled back over herself and let loose another burst of fire. Before they could fire in response she broke into another barrel roll, getting out of range.

They were sporting some impressive hardware, but their pilots didn't seem to be the best. At least, nowhere near as proficient as she was. Targeting one of the ships with missiles, Samus managed to get a lock and then fired. The instant her projectiles were off, she dove from her position, fire from one of the ships barely glancing her own.

It dove down at her, and Samus began a brief and vicious dogfight with the ship. This pilot seemed to be a bit better, and lasted for a while before Samus managed to break down his shields. Firing a missile without guidance, Samus sent him up in flames, then rolled back into the fight again.

One of the ships was still mostly undamaged, and the other had managed to survive her missile, though the pilot hadn't been able to dodge it. Enabling the thrusters on the side of her ship, Samus skidded in a new direction, strafing the ships as she went. Whirling, Samus activated her ship's tractor beam.

The surprise move worked, and one of the ships was momentarily caught. Caught long enough for Samus to lock on and fire. Anticipating the last pilot, the one with the most able ship, would attack, Samus immediately spun away, narrowing avoiding further fire. Circling, Samus found that the other pilot had circled as well, and their ships now faced each other.

Having no time for evasive action, Samus continued to fire as their ships swiftly bridged the gap between them. Her eyes narrowed; he was barely using his ship's full power, as if he was distracted by something else. She was destroying his shields, too. Their ships narrowly missed each other, and Samus dropped a bomb that quickly attached itself to her opponent's hull.

Abruptly Samus realized what he had done. Why would he be willing to do a sacrifice tactic? What did pirates have to fight for other than their own lives? In any case, there were now five missiles hot on her trail. Jerking her ship hard to the right and wincing as internal wheels ground together, Samus attempted to shake the projectiles.

A bit of fancy flying later, she'd managed to get rid of all but two. They were of a new variety she'd only read about, and some of the most sensitive homing missiles in the galaxy. Fortunately, that sensitivity was gained at a sacrifice of speed. But she could only keep ahead of them for so long.

Setting her ship on a straight line, Samus unbuckled herself from the chair and bolted toward the back. Entering the airlock, she switched her right arm to energy cannon mode as the air rushed from the chamber. Seconds later the elevator took her to the outside of the ship. Immediately activating magnetic boots, Samus stepped fully outside.

She couldn't see the missiles following her ship with her bare eyes, but she knew they were there. Since the ship wasn't shifting anymore, it was relatively easy to plot their trajectories... abruptly Samus fired a half dozen times behind her ship. Two explosions in space signified that she had been successful. Nodding to no one in particular, Samus moved back down into her ship.

Now the computer said she was alone again. Returning to autopilot, Samus leaned back in her chair and put her hands behind her head. Not too much of a problem, really, but it raised quite a few issues to think about. Could they have been mercenaries? Unlikely, as she was certain the ships had been of the typical space pirate variety. Then again, anything was possible. There was also a chance that they weren't pirates, just people someone wanted her to think were pirates. It would have been pretty tough for pirates to get their hands on weaponry like that.

More questions were the last thing she needed. With a sigh, Samus repositioned herself in the chair and tried to get a bit of rest.


	8. First Steps

I believe I will call artistic license on Samus' suit. This is not necessarily based upon any specific game in the series, nor even upon the character planning done by the designers of the Metroid series (they actually have some good ideas; by the point I was fully aware of them, however, there had been irrevocable decisions made about the story).

While I'll admit wall/space jumping would be more aesthetically pleasing, I didn't think it was reasonable to have such high levels of technology and not have a jet pack. One of the classic weapons has not yet appeared... at this point I will merely say that it eventually will, albeit under major renovation.

-

Chapter 8: First Steps

A soft tone echoed through the ship, signaling that she was nearing the docking bay for the space station. Removing her helmet so she could rub sleep from her eyes, Samus replaced it and then sat up, waiting for her access codes to be approved by the station. As always, she watched them carefully, in case anything else went on. As always, nothing did.

The Galactic Council outpost loomed ahead of her, and one of the large docking bay doors opened. Quickly she maneuvered her ship into bay, setting it down gently. Iron clamps connected to the floor, securing it, and then Samus got from her chair.

She found there was no one waiting for her as the doors to her ship slid open. That was unusual, but then again, so was her visit. Most of the time she came to any Galactic Council location only when they had a job for her to do, in which case they always met her the instant she stepped from the ship. This time, her visit was far more informal... and far more serious.

Quickly striding from the docking bay, Samus got through the airlock and into the station itself. It was crowded, as always, with hundreds of people wishing to file complaints, or have their own opinions heard. Such a huge bureaucracy, such a huge waste of time. At least it accomplished the purpose of keeping the galaxy at least somewhat safe, and provided some sort of leadership, however slow.

Finding herself in a massive line, Samus gritted her teeth and shook her head. She didn't have time for this sort of thing, and she wasn't the waiting type, either. Jumping into the air and activating her jet pack, Samus flew over the heads of the surprised people in line. Though she swept past them very quickly, she thought she caught a few wistful looks in her direction. Feh. None of them would ever be able to fly a jet pack.

Flying low to make it through a doorway, Samus entered the main chamber. It was an extremely tall, circular chamber that made up the central core of the station. Around it were levels upon levels of walkways circling the chamber, dozens of doors on each. She had little time for any of these, not today.

Blasting straight up through the center of the chamber, Samus found a higher governmental level and landed on the floor in front of the door she was looking for. Most of the time she tried to avoid working with bureaucrats, but some sacrifices had to be made. One of these was her acquaintance with Mr. Divel. The politician had handled all cases involving her, as well as all the Metroid cases, and so she had gotten to know him at least somewhat well. Slimy guy, but he had a sharp mind and had a knack for politics.

Stalking through the doors, Samus silenced the security guards with a glare. They knew who she was, and knew better than to try and stop her when she was in this sort of mood. She hoped they knew that they couldn't stop her, even if they tried. After the hallway filled with guards Samus entered the foyer of Mr. Divel's office, a plush room second only to the office itself in luxury.

The receptionist spared her a glance, and didn't even try to question her. Samus was relatively certain she pressed some secret button in her desk that alerted Mr. Divel to her coming. He was never surprised to see her.

Shoving both doors open so that they banged against the opposite walls, Samus strode into the office, practically radiating an aura of anger. She had gone far too long with no questions being answered, and now she was going to get some. Either that, or heads would roll. Mr. Divel had many contacts, legitimate and otherwise, and he surely knew plenty about the situation.

"Now, now, Miss Aran," a voice spoke softly. "Don't damage the wall decor, please." It originated from a tall chair that was currently facing away from her, toward the large window behind Richard Divel's desk. As she waited it rotated, coming to face her. He looked as smooth and polished as always, his face frozen in a slight smile that meant nothing.

"I want some answers," she snapped. "And it's Samus."

"My, you certainly aren't much for small talk, are you?" Mr. Divel asked, in that annoyingly soft and calm voice. The angrier side of Samus would have liked to punch his face in... and she knew from experience that it was physically possible.

"I nearly died," Samus returned sharply. "Correction: I was nearly killed. There was something going on at the station I wasn't told about. Something underhanded. I don't really care why information was withheld from me, but I want it now. You have a lot of questions to answer."

"But Samus... I know nothing of science matters. Surely you're mistaken, we received no reports of anything untoward."

"Mistaken about a ship nearly self-destructing on me?" Samus demanded. Gaining control of her emotions, she became icily calm. Raising a hand, she began ticking points off on her fingers. "One- it couldn't have been pirates, as all stations of that variety have heavy defensive systems, and are programmed to instantly send defense signals. Two- the station's location violated several Intergalactic regulations. Three- the scientists refused to allow me to enter the main laboratory. Four- they were doing experiments with Metroid specimens specifically barred from scientific testing. Five- when I asked the scientists questions they gave me a load of c--- story about aliens.

"None of it adds up. I want some answers."

"Wait, wait, wait," Mr. Divel said, though she noted his voice had lost all of its slick quality for a brief instant. "You have many questions, Miss Aran-"

"Samus."

"Samus, and I'm afraid I simply don't know the answers to all of them. Perhaps something untoward was going on at that station, but I'm unaware of what it is. I do know that we received no distress signal, at least that I'm aware of, and the scientists said that nothing was wrong." Mr. Divel's face changed, as if surprised. Samus was too perceptive to be fooled and recognized the false emotion. "But, I guess, they could have lied to us. I certainly hope not."

"Don't evade the question," Samus said tersely. "You have full part in this. They couldn't have created such a station without your authorization. You can't possibly be as innocent as you say you are- you probably haven't been innocent for years."

"I assure you, if our investigations discover anything, I will tell you immediately."

"It's not that simple. They were doing experiments on human life there. Human experiments that have been outlawed for years."

"I see." Mr. Divel's eyebrows shot up, but Samus thought his surprise might have been feigned. Then again, perhaps she was being too critical. "I think that a deeper investigation is definitely in order. This sounds quite serious, Miss Aran. Thank you for bringing it to my attention."

Gritting her teeth, Samus snorted derisively but remained silent. It was obvious his tone was a dismissal. He'd managed to answer none of her questions whatsoever, and she couldn't legitimately keep questioning him. If he called the guards... well, they couldn't stop her, but killing them all would be pointless and wouldn't get her any closer to her goal.

"Please remain with us for some time, Samus," Mr. Divel said cordially. "You may, of course, remain in your provincial quarters here as long as you like. Shilo will escort you there."

"Shilo?" Samus echoed. She knew that name. True, there were probably a great many Shilos in the galaxy, but she knew of only one that worked at this Galactic Council outpost. Not good, not good at all.

"I can find my own wa-"

"I would be happy to escort Miss Aran to her room," a smooth voice came from behind her.

"Samus," she snapped, even as she turned to face the last person in the world she wanted to see at the moment.

As always, Shilo was dressed immaculately in a svelte suit, the newest and most expensive. There was a pleasant smile plastered on his face. Something about him made Samus want to shove hot plasma down his throat. And that wasn't even taking into account the fact that he was hopelessly in love with her.

Gently yet unavoidably Shilo hooked her arm and led her from the room. Glancing back over her shoulder, Samus could have sworn she saw Mr. Divel smirk at her. If she ever found out the b------ knew how much she hated Shilo, he'd be in a world of hurt.

"How have you been, Samus?" Shilo asked casually. Unlike most of her would-be suitors, Shilo considered her his equal (something he rarely did with anyone). That made him infinitely more annoying. Not that she wouldn't admit no one could be her equal... it just wasn't likely to happen in this galaxy. Certainly not him, anyway.

"Do you mean besides being stranded on a deserted planet for nearly a month?" she responded just as casually. Shilo stumbled for a mere split second, which was to his credit.

"But of course."

"Oh, well, other than that things are going swimmingly. I've only gone on an insane mission where no one will explain what's going on - which I still haven't been paid for, by the way - and I nearly get blown to pieces. My idea of living the high life."

"You might want to cup your hands and catch some of that sarcasm, eh?"

"Trust me, I have plenty in reserve."

"Very clever, very clever. I was promoted to Grand Vizier recently, have I told you that?" Had she told him she couldn't care less? "Great position, but not as far as I think I'll go." He'd probably go pretty far if she tossed him over a walkway edge... "There are many higher positions yet, and the position of Vizier is just a step to a true position of power..."

_And thus begins the endless conversation about himself,_ Samus thought wearily. She picked up her pace to make this ordeal take less time. Shilo kept up, but she knew he couldn't for long. He'd have enough stamina to make it to her quarters, but not much more. Served him right. Samus found herself very glad she was wearing her bio suit... she would have hated to actually touch him.

It took far too long for them to reach Samus's quarters, where the bounty hunter promptly disengaged herself from his arm, slipped through the door and politely shut it in his face. Modern locks made no sound when engaged, but Shilo knew her well enough to know it would be locked. Probably sound-proofed, too. _Crazy girl, playing hard to get..._

Sitting down heavily on the soft, elegant bed in the room, Samus sighed heavily. Things were not going well, not at all. She had come here expecting answers... but since when did bureaucrats give anyone answers? They existed for the sake of bureaucracy, after all. Had she been required to stake her life on it, she would have bet that Mr. Divel knew more than he let on about. He was far too skilled to show anything, but she was a pretty good judge of character...

The question was if she could actually trust anyone here. Someone had rigged the ship to explode, and they'd used a self-destruct function to do it. Now why a ship would have a self-destruct function was beyond her, and why it would be triggered was even further beyond. All she could think of was that someone had triggered it from without... but that would have required them to have hacked into the system, or planted something there in the first place. Either way, they had a lot of power.

She didn't really fear having to fight someone, she could handle that, she feared the more subtle methods they might use. Space pirates were nothing. Poison in food or water, a quick injection while she was asleep, running electricity through her floor... possibilities were endless. Most of them her bio suit would protect her from, but not all. Anyone who wanted to kill her could find a way to do so.

As soon as she could get away from civilization the better. Life was better when around just a few people who weren't so obnoxious, like a select set of bounty hunters or someone like Tal. There were far too few good people in the universe...

Thinking about that instantly made her think about Shilo- the exact opposite of a good person. Jerk. As a politician, he would never do anything she could shoot him for. Almost enough to make her want to go pirate, like some bounty hunters, and disobey all rules. But that life certainly wasn't something she wanted either.

With a sigh Samus fell back on the bed heavily. Her bio suit balanced the impact, ruining the effect and preventing the act from relieving much stress. Maybe it would just be better to give up on this entire issue... pretend it had never happened...

A beep jerked her alert. Had it been an alarm, Samus would have already been on her feet, but as the case was it was just to notify her she had a message incoming so she just sat up slowly. Already? Very few people had her computer IP here, so her messages were few. Mainly just Mr. Divel, Shilo (who knew how he had gotten it?) and a few select bounty hunters. None of whom she wanted to talk to.

Regardless, she needed something to shake her out of this mood. Getting to her feet, Samus moved over to the computer panel in the wall. The message was, sure enough, from a bureaucratic station elsewhere. Could have been worse, then. Still, she didn't want to take it. Just as her fingers hovered over the reject button, she noticed something strange.

It was encrypted just as it should be, but something wasn't right. All the proper access codes were intact but slightly disrupted, as if someone had done a hack job of getting in. Much more interesting. Considering this wasn't her computer and thus not her problem if it got wiped, Samus opened the message. For a few seconds the computer whirred, then opened the message itself.

There was no text included, but there was a video feed line, probably containing the main message. In addition there were quite a number of attached files, but she'd be a fool to open those. At least she could see what the video feed was.

Tal suddenly appeared on screen. Behind him was a sterile, clean room, giving no hint of his location. Overcoming her initial shock at seeing him again, Samus stepped back to watch the message. He had returned to his human form; the human looking form anyway.

"I hope you didn't delete this," Tal began cautiously, glancing behind him. "It was a real pain to get this message to you. I don't actually have that much time, I'll have security on me in a few minutes, at the very longest.

"First though, I really have to apologize. I shouldn't have lied to you so long, kept what I am a secret. I'm sorry. But that doesn't matter now. You might hate me, you might detest what I am, but that's not the issue.

"Both of us were abused by certain individuals. Neither of us has the full story. I haven't been able to find out everything, and I probably won't be able to. You might, though. We'll never see each other again, so I'm sending you this. Along with the feed itself is a copy of all the information I've gathered. Maybe you have the resources to follow up where I can't."

Pausing, Tal glanced at the ground, scuffing his shoe nervously. He seemed guilty enough for his actions, Samus reflected. In fact, seeing him now, she could almost forget what he really was: the armored, winged, plasma-shooting figure. Almost, but not quite. An alarm began to ring- in the video, not real life- and Tal jerked his head to the left. Quickly he moved closer to the camera, tapping several keys off-screen.

"I'm sorry I can't explain everything. The files with this should say more than I can. Goodbye, Samus. It was nice knowing you."

As the tape faded out, the last sight Samus saw was Tal turning from the camera. Armor was sprouting around his body, his hands were becoming claws. Then the screen blinked back to the image of the message itself.

Shrugging, Samus opened the attached files. If Tal had wanted to hurt her, he could already have done so. As files began to list on screen, Samus' eyebrows slowly raised and continued to move higher. So much was here: shipping reports, transmissions between the three stations, results of experiments, personal mission logs of scientists, specific command orders.

Enough, Samus slowly realized, that if she could do proper research she could pin all this to someone. There wasn't enough to connect it to an individual, that was where Tal had passed the baton to her, but if she ever did make a connection, that individual was doomed. No matter who they were, there was a mountain of evidence here to convict them. Shaking herself, Samus quickly began downloading all of it to her bio suit. When it was complete, she allowed herself to smile slightly.

"No matter what you are, Tal," she whispered aloud. "I think I can forgive you."

Quickly scanning through the files on screen, Samus made her way through the document. It was written in genuine scientist-ese, but she thought if she could figure out what it was saying she would obtain some important information. She didn't really like reading, but she had developed the skill never the less. Sometimes it could come in handy.

Tal's files had given her a lot of information and, more importantly, a lot of leads to work with. She'd been basically living in the computer libraries of the station for the past few days, slowly building her case. No one had bothered her about it or disturbed her in any other way, excepting the fact that Shilo was nearly constantly around, so her work was both swift and productive.

With his files, she had proof that someone was tampering with human DNA. A bit of work had created a provable link between the scientists and usage of the forbidden Metroid specimens. That alone was enough to get anyone in jail for life. On top of that, she had enough information to file several charges of uses of illegal and experimental chemicals and procedures. Many underhanded deals had been pulled in the acquisition of such things.

All that was missing was a link between the scientists and the politicians in charge. Samus had become absolutely convinced someone with serious authority was commanding this operation, but she couldn't prove anything. Until she had that information, they would claim that the scientists had acted on their own, and they'd get off free. She would not allow that to happen.

At the moment, she had forged links to multiple minor officials. Half of this station could be linked to some sort of illegal activity. All of these strands of deceit had to lead somewhere, however, and Samus wanted to know where. She was sure some individual was sitting in the middle like a spider in a web. It was possible it was Mr. Divel... but he could be only a pawn in this game as well. So many questions, so few answers.

Putting her head down, Samus continued to work.


	9. Eye of the Hurricane

Interesting; I generally do not consider (the majority of) my chapters to be short. They are roughly the size of the average novel chapter. However, that is certainly a legitimate opinion. I will apologize in advance for some of the later chapters, which are fairly short due to unique circumstances. You probably won't like this chapter ending (I do).

Starfox/Metroid crossovers are off topic and will be addressed after the chapter.

I believe that Samus' personality as I have created it is fairly realistic given her past and profession. However, what you referred to will occur, merely in unusual circumstances.

-

Chapter 9: Eye of the Hurricane

"Sir, there are six unidentified ships approaching the station at a high velocity."

The guard commander raised his head, glancing at the ensign who addressed him; young kid, not bright or good enough to catch much attention. But at the moment it wouldn't have mattered who had delivered the message. Not another d--- problem. It was bad enough he had to miss the party and get stuck with guard duty, but the last thing he wanted was actual trouble. In old age he had learned the valuable lesson that being bored to death was better than taking an actual chance of dying. Wearily he ordered his thoughts and gave the best command he was capable of at the moment.

"Hail them."

"We've already done so, sir. They refuse to respond, and they have armed both weapons and shields."

"Arm our own weapons," the commander ordered. He was a in a bad mood, and these guys had picked the wrong time to piss him off. "The instant they come within range, fire on them with energy based weapons. Get a lock on them while this happens and then fire anti-matter weaponry at them. They should be stardust within seconds."

"Yes sir." Immediately the others scurried about to do as he had asks. The commander watched the visual on screen as the other ships approached. _Time to die, idiots,_ he thought to himself. Just before they entered their firing range, he identified them as pirate ships. Strange, why would vessels like that come near a bastion of authority such as this?

"Weapons refuse to fire, sir!" someone yelled.

"What? Why?" the commander demanded.

"They're transmitting a high level diplomatic code, sir," one of the technicians replied.

"Why the h--- would they have that?"

"I don't know, si-"

"We're being fired upon!" another officer yelled. "They're engaging projectile weaponry as well."

"The codes were stolen!" the commander gasped, now realizing. "Cancel the operations on the station that prevent us from attacking! As soon as you get around those, blast those ships apart with everything we've got! Someone else, get an independent particle weapon working!"

Everyone took a moment to comprehend the order, then grimly set about their work. Putting his head in his hands, the commander shook his head and sighed. He hoped everyone else was having a smashing good time, because the day was about to get far worse.

As much as those commanding the station were not enjoying themselves, Samus Aran was probably enjoying herself even less. Given the choice, she probably would have exchanged positions with them. She'd discovered her continued presence on this station came with a price, and a heavy one indeed. But she'd had no choice.

Which was how the feared bounty hunter found herself at a party. A social event for slimy politicians. In a dress, even. There were some fates worse than death. As everyone around her babbled incessantly about pointless matters and intergalactic stocks, Samus thought up creative and probably illegal ways to torture all of them. Mentally, she made a vow to get off this station before anyone else could even think the word "party" again.

By this point in the evening, most of the guests were heavily inebriated, which just made the situation worse. No one had approached her yet, which was probably fortunate for them, as they might have lost critical appendages. If she'd been allowed to take any of her weapons with her, they probably would have lost more than that.

She would have given almost anything to end the boredom, but dozens of individuals coming into the room firing crossed a few lines. The soft sound of mostly silenced energy weapons immediately caught her attention, and she turned as quickly as possible to see what was going on. From an upper level of the massive ballroom, numerous individuals in scruffy clothing were firing down below.

Stunning weapons, she realized, but still very bad for her. The worst she could do to them was throw something. Taking a jump back, Samus narrowly avoided a bit of fire aimed in her direction. Seeing she had dodged, a few more fired at her. Rolling to the right, Samus managed to evade them, but tripped on her dress as she came up and fell flat on her face.

To her surprise, no one shot her while she was down. Unusual, but she wasn't complaining. Quickly getting to her feet, Samus found that the firing had stopped. Most of the party guests lay on the ground, stunned or possibly worse. People in poor health stood a fair chance of having a heart attack when hit with a stunning weapon. The remaining guests were being herded into a corner. But why had they stopped firing?

It was at that moment that Samus happened to look up. Up the long crystal staircase that extended to the next level. Past all the attackers, obviously space pirates of some sort. Standing at the top of the stair was a figure she recognized all too well, a hand raised, ordering the pirates to cease their fire.

Shilo smiled just slightly, then slowly descended the stairs, coming toward Samus. Gulping, she tried to run, just in time to strike two burly pirates. They pinioned her arms to her sides as Shilo walked closer. Most likely, Samus guessed, she could knock them off her if necessary, if it would help her. Not a great idea with so many guns in trigger happy hands around, though. Best to save her last card for when she really needed it.

"Well, well, Miss Aran, we meet again," Shilo said softly, stopping a meter from her.

"Samus!"

Quickly Shilo made a gesture, and Samus felt a needle sink into her arm. Too late she realized what it was, and by that point the chemical was already seeping through her body. A feeling of immense weariness spread over her. Where had they come across that powerful of a sedative? These were no ordinary pirates, to say the least, they definitely had outside help. Which had been made rather obvious just now.

"You're looking particularly lovely this evening," Shilo went on, voice still cordial. "I'd be happy to speak with you in just a moment, but I fear I have other matters to attend to. Gentlemen, escort the lady to her quarters."

Now weak and drained, Samus could only hang limply as the pirates nearly dragged her into a corridor branching from the main ballroom. Though lethargic, Samus managed to memorize their route. They quickly found a room, where the two pirates threw her against a wall unnecessarily brutally, then sat by the door, guns in hand.

Groaning softly, Samus exerted the most energy she could muster to sit up against the wall. The chemical was wearing off, but they probably knew that. If she was going to get out of this one, she'd have to try something just before they gave her another dose. Firing a gun didn't take much energy, she really needed to get her hands on one of those. That wasn't likely to be easy, however. Not easy at all. At the moment she opted to wait, to see if she could find out anything important.

Time blurred together for her, but some time later Samus heard a noise. Glancing up with only medium effort, she saw Shilo calmly stride into the room, that same smile still on his face. At least by this point she had the strength to chew him out. It was the little things in life that made it enjoyable.

"Comfortable, Miss Aran?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Why?" Shilo shrugged and put out his arms in a gesture of ignorance. "Why does anyone do anything in this galaxy? They want something. I want money, and I want power."

"You're making an enemy of the Galactic Council! That's asking for a death warrant, they can be here within hours!"

"I've already made plans to mysteriously vanish. They wouldn't dare approach us here, not while we possess so many valuable hostages. First, they will have to concede to our demands... which will consist of a considerable amount of money, I might add. I've already made the official message to the Council itself. And, of course, who would suspect a mere Grand Vizier of plotting something such as this? Much death will be a tragic affair."

"You _rat!_ Have you been planning this all along?"

"You mean, did I plant myself on this station solely to capture it? Exactly, my dear. Before that, my record was as clean as any politician's... making me the obvious choice for the job. It has taken years of work, but today things will finally pay off. This will be quite profitable for my compatriots and I."

Seething, Samus refused to answer him. The dirty b------ had been out for his own good since the beginning. In this galaxy, that didn't separate him from any other politician, but at least most bureaucrats didn't hold innocent people hostage.

"You, however," Shilo continued, quite indifferent to her silence, "have not been mentioned in any of these deals. In fact, your presence here has been completely masked, by individuals about which I do not know nor care. You might as well not be here."

"I don't want to hear it."

"There are two ways this could go," Shilo continued, completely ignoring her. "First, you could try to fight me and get yourself killed." He bent down to her level, then raised her head to look into his eyes. "Or you could come with me and live. I'll be gentle, I promise."

"Frankly I'd rather die by being jabbed with a spork," Samus answered dryly. At this point, she had no idea if she would live or die, and had ceased to care. She might as well be sarcastic when she went.

"We'll see how long you think that," Shilo answered calmly, rising to his feet. "Remember: I'm always available."

The fleet of hastily assembled Galactic Council warships stood poised near the outpost station. They couldn't risk firing, not on such a valuable location. Hundreds of key political leaders were on that situation, and thousands of the bureaucrats that made the government run smoothly as well. It would have taken little effort for them to destroy the station, but they couldn't... and the terrorists knew that.

Cursing under his breath, the commander of the station continued to struggle with his bonds. It was probably hopeless, he knew, but if he just gave up like this he might as well already be dead. Everything had gone exactly as he had expected, and now they were all captured. At least he'd managed to take the station's weapons offline. If that meant the Galactic Council destroyed his station, at least he'd have sacrificed his life for a good cause.

Sitting back in a comfortable chair, Shilo swirled a glass of wine before his face, considering it carefully. Putting an arm over the back of his chair, he took a small sip. The Galactic Council forces said they would give him their answer in two hours. He knew they had no other options.

Samus had long since become bored with the room around her. It was a simple supply room, small and relatively empty. The most recent injection of the drug had worn off, but the guards at the door were keeping guns aimed at her at all times. In her bio suit, the blasts wouldn't have been much of a problem... the same blasts would rip directly through human flesh. This situation was dragging on far too long...

Mr. Divel sat back in his chair. His face remained an emotionless mask, but he was actually beginning to slip. As always, there were backup plans in place. If necessary, he could escape and arrive safely at another Galactic Council location. But so much careful work and planning would be lost. No, it was best to wait it out, see what would happen.

Heaving a deep sigh, the commander of the fleet buried his head in his hands. This was not what he needed at the moment. He was a military general, not a negotiator. But they had proven they had plenty of valuable hostages. They'd have to pay an extreme amount of money to get them back... if the pirates even played by the rules.

Closing her eyes with natural weariness, Samus pressed her back against the cold wall, just to remind herself that she was alive. She'd been motionless here so long her body had become numb and stiff. Though she could have outlasted the guards, they were taking shifts watching her. Maybe it would just be best to submit to Shilo's requests. It would save everyone on the station at least... no. Never. Hell would freeze over before she would let him touch her.

Invisible to the ships' radar, another fleet of sorts floated in space. It was extremely close to the station, but its sensors had been taken offline. Meanwhile, the Galactic Council fleet did not sense its energy, as it was masked by the station. A figure floating in the center opened its eyes slowly.

It was about then that the monsters attacked.

-

I think that perhaps there are no Starfox/Metroid crossovers because the two are different game genres and hence attract different individuals. There is overlap between platform gamers and flight simulation gamers, but it is not incredibly great. Furthermore, this difference in game style would make a crossover decidedly unusual, as one game would be slightly out of its general style (not, however, with the newest Starfox game). Also, perhaps the animal nature of Starfox could be considered unusual.


	10. Unavoidable Circumstance

Chapter 10: Unavoidable Circumstance

The station began to shake, making the room Samus was held in shift about dangerously. She was tossed back and forth against the wall - painful, but it was a relief to move at all - and the guards were nearly thrown from their feet. After the initial blasts faded and the space station began to compensate, however, the shaking stopped and the space pirates again had their guns trained on her. There went that escape opportunity.

Stretching her sore muscles as much as possible without the guards noticing, Samus tried to work the kinks out of her body. If she even had a gun, she could probably shoot both guards, but they had been thorough. Nothing nearby could be used as a weapon.

Seeing that she couldn't escape, Samus instead set to thinking about what could possibly be happening. Could the Galactic Council fleet have actually attacked the station? No, they wouldn't be that foolish. If they were to seriously attack, the station would be obliterated entirely, not just shaken. Perhaps they found another way to attack, and they were doing so now.

Things were beginning to heat up, Samus could obviously tell. On occasion men rushed up to speak to the guards not currently aiming at her. She couldn't hear what they were saying and they were trying not to let her hear, but she got the impression that something was wrong. Whoever was doing something, they were beating the space pirates. A few of the men actually looked scared, which was strange for a space pirate. _Blast it... I'm stuck in this stupid room when all the action is happening around us!_

If Samus had thought the worst had already arrived, a practice she had long discontinued, she would have had her mind changed. Several minutes later she began to hear screams, a sure sign that the battle was taking place on the station, not outside of it. Typically energy weapons didn't create screams like that... either the attackers were using ordinary projectile weapons or something else entirely. That, or they were killing the hostages.

It eventually got to the point that Samus was glad to see Shilo walk into the room. Most of his saunter had disappeared, a sure sign that things were going wrong. That made his presence a great deal more bearable.

"What's going on?" Samus demanded. Shilo shook his head civilly, but his polished attitude was gone, showing hard anger beneath.

"That's none of your business."

"Things aren't going well, are they? Losing to someone?"

"Perceptive. As always." Shilo spat. "It is irrelevant. I'll be off this station quickly, with a few key hostages. A setback, surely, but that is all it will be. Only one question remains, my dear. Will you be going with me?"

"You already know how I'm going to answer that question."

"Of course I do. Allow me to rephrase it." Shilo snapped his fingers, and two of the guards rushed forward, grabbing Samus by the arms and slamming her against the wall, high enough she could no longer touch the ground. Casually Shilo stepped forward, that slight smirk on his face once again. He raised a hand and began to gently trace her jaw with a finger. "If you remain here, you will be killed. That is certain. Go with me, and you'll receive numerous benefits, outside of your life being spared. How much can it cost you? What do you say?"

In response Samus bit his finger. Yelping in pain Shilo pulled his hand away, face the very model of rage.

"B----! You'll pay for that!" Whirling on a heel, Shilo strode from the room. Over his shoulder he snapped his fingers, the fingers that hadn't been bitten. "Kill her immediately and fall back. If possible do it painfully."

Gritting her teeth, Samus began deciding her strategy. She had no need to come to terms with the fact that she might die; she had accepted that long ago. The question was how many of them she could take out before she died. Even if she managed to finish all of them, the station was dying; she'd be killed by the vacuum or radiation long before she could reach her bio suit. If she used all her strength she could knock away the two holding her, then take the legs out from under the nearest four...

Her thoughts were interrupted by a scream that erupted from the hallway. Everyone, including Samus, glanced into it, though nothing stirred outside the room. Turning back to her, the leader of the pirates leveled his weapon at her head and moved his finger to the trigger.

Suddenly he collapsed to the ground, the gun falling from his grip. Before Samus could fully register her shock, two smoking holes appeared in the men holding her arms. Landing agilely on her feet, Samus looked up in time to see several blasts of energy flare, killing the remaining guards that had been in the room. Carefully she glanced up to the door.

Tal lowered his hand to his side. His other arm was partially transformed, his claw holding the body of Shilo. Seeing her, he tossed Shilo aside and returned his arm to its human appearance. Which was he? Samus found herself wondering. Which form was the truth and which was a deception? At the moment, she really didn't care.

"Why are you here?" Samus asked him. Tal shook his head.

"We don't have time. You need to find your bio suit right away or you won't survive."

"Right," Samus agreed, moving to the nearest computer terminal and explaining as she worked. "My suit registers a unique energy reading, I should be able to change the settings on the ship's scanners to search for it. Hopefully they're keeping it close."

"Just hurry," Tal answered, glancing out into the corridor. Samus finished the operation and began the search. Now that there was nothing else she could do, she turned back to him.

"What's going on out there? Who attacked?"

"I did, essentially."

"_You_ attacked the station by yourself."

"No. Let me explain. The station is currently being overrun by space-dwelling alien life forms. They're similar to me, in a way, except that they have no human part to them." For a moment Tal grimaced. "If I have a human part to me at all..." He shook his head to clear it. "Forgive my tangent. I defeated the alpha male for this set of aliens. Due to my... unique composition, they now obey me."

"You ordered the aliens to attack?" Samus asked, slightly incredulous.

"Essentially. They're invisible to most sensors, so they could get here quickly."

"Let me get one thing straight: you can survive the space vacuum, right?"

"Yes," Tal nodded. "But I should finish answering your question quickly. My forces overran the pirates relatively quickly, while I found out where you were and headed here. I didn't expect to have to help you, but I suppose it was a fortuitous turn of events. In any case, the damage to the station is severe, and radiation will sweep through it shortly."

"I see." Closing her eyes, Samus tried to process the information and continue thinking about the issues at hand. It was most important to get to the bio suit, if what Tal said was true.

Swiftly tapping a few buttons on another computer terminal, Tal brought up a schematic that Samus wasn't familiar with. Colors were shifting across it, meaning nothing to her, but apparently Tal could read them. He cursed and slammed a hand into the bulkhead.

"What?"

"We have less than a minute," he answered tersely. "We have to get you to a safe location. Are there any radiation-proof areas nearby?"

"No. Only on the bottom level of the station."

"Any emergency suits for working in a vacuum?"

"None that would stop radiation like that. I assume it's nega-photon."

At that moment the computer beeped, indicating it had located the bio suit. Samus glanced at it quickly, then groaned. It was more than five minutes away, even if she was going her fastest. There was no way she could make it, if the timing of the radiation was correct. Tal saw the same and squinched his eyes closed, putting a hand to his forehead and apparently thinking heavily.

"There has to be a way to get you away from the radiation..." he murmured.

"Me? What about you? Have some self-preservation instinct!"

"I'm immune to this type. It's too intrinsic to my genetic composition for it to hurt me."

"I... see. Then you were just trying to help me?" Now that one was harder for Samus to fully understand. Very rarely did someone do something like that... but apparently Tal was that sort of person. Or monster. Or alien. At this point the issue was moot.

"Yes, and speaking of which, I thought of one thing I can do." Tal glanced at her, his blue eyes glistening slightly. "Sorry about this, Samus."

She was about to say 'sorry about what?' but then Tal stepped behind her, wrapping his arms around her tightly and lifting her slightly off the ground. A slight shiver went up her back as she felt his armor incase his body. Both of Tal's wings expanded to either side of them, then curled around her tightly. Closing her eyes, Samus held her breath. If this actually worked...

A ripple went through the room, and Samus assumed that was probably the radiation wave, or at least the beginning of it. She had taken radiation damage before, and this didn't feel like that, so maybe the plan had actually worked. In any case, the radiation was still rushing past them.

His wings felt a bit like leather, Samus reflected, though they appeared to have muscle within them. Much softer than she had expected. The armor she was pressed tightly against felt much like an exoskeleton, which was the conclusion she had come to before. Overall, though, it wasn't actually that uncomfortable. How could someone be genetically like this? It didn't seem possible to her, but she didn't claim to understand nearly everything about science.

Then it ended, and a few moments after Tal released her. Only when he let go did she realize that she'd barely noticed his arms around her. Catching herself on her feet, Samus glanced herself over and decided that Tal's body had managed to absorb the radiation before it reached her. Amazing...

Tal himself immediately retracted his armor and wings, the latter of which seemed to return into his back, sliding in through several tiny slits in his shirt. So he actually had clothes designed to accommodate his transformation, this time.

"I'm sorry I had to do that," Tal began, but Samus cut him off.

"It doesn't matter now. What's important now is getting out of here before another wave comes."

"Right," Tal nodded, handing her one of the dead pirate's guns. Samus quickly took a look at the map diagraming the path to her bio suit, then broke out the door. Tal was directly behind her, and the two of them sprinted down the corridor. Interesting, Samus reflected, he was almost capable of matching her in a dead sprint, now. She didn't know of anyone who was that close to her speed.

"Where's your ship docked?" Tal asked as they ran.

"Dock 23."

"Good, that one is still intact. After you get the bio suit, if you can get to your ship you can get sufficiently far away. There's complete chaos outside, but no major ships still in operation and no smaller ones capable of tracking you down."

"Will I be able to get to my ship, though?" Samus pointedly asked.

"I'll make sure none of the aliens are in the way." He paused, catching his breath while he ran. "Did you get my message and the attachment?"

"Yeah. I have a great case against someone." Finding the door to the holding locker where her suit was kept, Samus skidded to a stop, then blew the lock away with her gun before continuing her explanation. "If I'd had more time, I could have done a lot more, though."

"Good. I hope someone gets prosecuted for this. Try to get this case closed."

Samus stopped, sensing something in his tone, and turned back to him. "Are you saying that you're leaving again?"

"Only somewhat," he answered. "I need to clear up this situation, but then after that I'd like to go to Station Emerald. I've wiped out the other two, but they only had incomplete information. I need to complete my records there. If you want to come along, I can meet up with you before I go."

"I see." Samus deigned to give him an honest smile. "I think I'd like to do that, Tal. Alien or not."

"Thanks." Tal returned the smile, then raced away down the corridor, his hands transforming back into claws as he ran. Refocusing herself, Samus entered the storage room and quickly found her bio suit. It hadn't been screwed around with by anyone, and apparently still was at full power. Her body suit was there as well, but she didn't have time for that now. Putting the metal over her dress, Samus turned it back on, then finally allowed herself to relax slightly.

Finally she was capable of defending herself again. Being back in the bio suit felt like being at home again. She would have time to consider the ramifications of all this later, at the moment it was most important to get off the station before someone blew it away. Everything she needed was either recorded in the bio suit or on her ship, so she didn't have much to do.

The trip to the docking bay was completely empty, as Tal had promised. As such, it was incredibly easy for Samus to reach it quickly, get into her ship and take off. Until they were blown to smithereens by the onboard guns, the docking bay doors were somewhat of a hindrance. Once out into open space again, Samus wasted no time in putting distance between herself and the warring space station.

Setting the ship on autopilot in orbit of the nearest uncolonized planet, Samus quickly left the room. Time to take off, and probably burn, this ridiculous dress and put on her full body suit again. Feeling much less cramped within her bio suit, Samus returned to the cockpit and leaned back in her chair. Now that the chaos was over, it was time to think and plan. She had a lot of work to do. Tal's advice had been solid, Station Emerald was their last chance to get more information. If Tal wanted to destroy it as well, that was perfectly understandable, if her theories were correct.

Wait a second... for the first time Samus wondered how Tal was even going to find her again. She hadn't left him any way to contact her, though he certainly seemed capable of finding where she was. Perhaps he intended for them to meet at Station Emerald itself. That would hardly be conducive for the sort of surveillance mission he seemed to have planned, however.

Sitting back, Samus continued to consider the problem. Her eyes began to close, and she realized that it had been quite some time since she had slept, with the entire standoff with the terrorists. Suddenly getting some sleep became the highest priority on her list. Setting her bio suit to its most comfortable setting, she set the ship to stay in orbit and closed her eyes...


	11. Zero G Revelations

Thank you for the review; it is appreciated.

Well, because it appears that someone is interested in what happens next... hence what happens next:

-

Chapter 11: Zero G Revelations

...it seemed like only an instant later when a vibration in her ship's hull woke her up. Blinking sleep from her eyes, Samus glanced at her suit's clock... she'd slept almost five hours. She'd never needed a lot of sleep, though, that was probably enough to make her fully capable again. For however long she'd need to be awake, anyway.

The ship vibrated just slightly again, prompting Samus to glance around for the source. She was mildly surprised, though she hid it completely, when she saw Tal clamped onto the front of her ship. He was entirely encased in his armor, but she recognized him easily. By this point his variety of exoskeleton was almost familiar. Again he lightly knocked on the front of the ship with a fist, sending more of those slight vibrations. So that was what he was doing...

Getting to her feet so he knew she was awake, Samus made a motion telling him to wait, then headed to the back of the ship. The airlock sent air compressing away behind her, then deposited her on the side of the ship. Activating her magnet boots, Samus walked her way toward the front of the ship, where Tal remained perched on her cockpit.

Seeing her, he got out of his crouched position. The claws that served as his feet carefully curled around another part of the ship, anchoring him. Effective...

They glanced at each other mutely, neither sure what to say, if they had been capable of actually speaking to each other. Eventually, Samus made a motioning gesture and moved back across the ship to the airlock. Tal followed at a somewhat slower rate.

Only when they were both inside the ship and the airlock had closed did Tal retract his armor, returning to his fully human appearance. Brushing a bit of dark hair away from his eyes, he glanced at her and shrugged.

"Are we going to Station Emerald now?"

"That was my intention," Samus answered, turning to go to the cockpit. Tal followed, then leaned against one of the bulkheads behind her chair as she quickly pulled up the files he had given her. Within them somewhere was the location of Station Emerald, she just couldn't remember exactly what it was...

"Look up the file lab05r341," Tal answered her thought.

"Roger," Samus answered, quickly finding the location and setting the ship to fly there. How convenient she'd stocked up fully at Bounty Hunter Headquarters so recently; she'd be completely ready to take on whatever they had. Of course, their goal was to get in and find information, not just destroy it, but she had a suspicion they'd eventually blast the station to bits. That was what she suspected Tal had been doing at the Power Core of Station Sapphire.

When the ship was set on its course and flying on autopilot, Samus moved back into the main portion of her ship drawing up an extra chair next to the small table. Tal sat down opposite her, and the two didn't say anything for some time.

"So..." Samus eventually said. "What happened back at the Galactic Council Outpost?"

"I cleaned up the rest of the terrorists, then retreated all the aliens. They're on a nearby planet, and hopefully they'll just stay there. I'm not too certain how good my control is yet, I'm still just learning."

"This isn't second nature to you?"

"Not at all. I've been working through what exactly I can do slowly, discovering exactly what's... different about me. It's pretty tough handling nega-photons, and I can't quite get the hang of certain things. Part of my exoskeleton doesn't seem completely formed yet, either. This is all new."

Randomly curious, Samus slipped over to Darklight mode as he spoke. Interesting, all of Tal's body now radiated a bright blue color. He'd been green before... did that mean he had higher concentrations of anti-photons in his body now? Why would that happen...?

"What are we going to do when we get there?" Samus asked. Tal paused momentarily, apparently considering his response.

"What I've done on the other stations, I'd imagine. Due to the hidden placement of these stations, they only do a sensor sweep of the area on rare occasions, to avoid being found. These sweeps aren't too hard to pick up if you're looking for them, which gives us a chance to break into the station. From there, it's generally surveillance work until I find what I need, then I destroy the station."

"Is that what you were doing when we first met?" Samus asked, just to make sure.

"Correct. You accomplished the same thing, though. On Station Emerald, though, I'm going to have to be a lot more careful. They're probably on high alert, and I need to get all the information I can."

"I see. Well, the plan's effective in theory, at least. Before we get there, however, I have another question to ask you. Truthfully, what does your past have to do with all this?"

"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure," Tal answered. "I really don't want to tell you, but I guess it would be only fair. I wasn't really lying before: I did grow up around scientists. I've always been treated a bit differently, and I don't know why. They basically trained me only in science and martial arts. When I reached a certain age, though, something happened."

For a moment Tal paused, running a hand through his dark hair. "My memory blacks out at that point, though I've been able to retain some of it. I'm still trying to find the information I need to know what exactly is going on.

"I know one thing for certain, though: My ordinary memory starts with me being like I am now, without control of my abilities. In the beginning, before I got control of them, they would work sporadically. Living was pure agony. One way or another, though, I survived.

"After that?" Tal paused, thinking. "I've mainly been motivated by this quest to find out who I am and revenge. A bit melodramatic, no? But it's all I have. Beyond that I have no idea whatsoever."

"I see." Samus nodded for a moment, ingesting this data. It sounded like he still wasn't telling the whole truth, but she'd let it slide at this point. There was also the very real possibility that he simply wasn't capable of telling her the whole truth. In any case, what he had told her would do for now.

For twenty minutes they simply chatted about whatever applied, lapsing into silence when there was nothing to say. They outlined a plan to infiltrate the station pretty quickly, relying primarily on Samus' notoriety and Tal's knowledge of the other two stations. That sort of work really wasn't her type, but she'd do what she had to do to get some real answers here.

There was a slight tone that echoed through the ship when they arrived at the edge of the station's sensor perimeter. While it didn't appear to be actively scanning at the moment, Samus knew it was only a matter of time before they'd be close enough to be sensed regardless, soon, they could probably be seen with the naked eye.

Forcing herself out of her chair, Samus moved to the cockpit and began examining the situation. Nothing appeared amiss, but her ship's sensors couldn't yet reach the station. Like the other two, it was positioned in an asteroid field. She had cloaking technology, but if they could break it that would be difficult to explain. Furthermore, they'd need to dock with the station in any case, so it'd be best to go in keeping a low profile.

"Uh oh." Tal's words made her look up, and she realized why he had said them. The station was just coming into view out the front window, or, at least, it should have.

A massive hunk of metal floated in space, listlessly drifting. Most of the station was intact, but it was dark, only emergency lights on and invisible from this distance. Ordinarily the massive rings that simulated gravity were rotating, but this ring was completely still. No longer did the station hover in space, it drifted wherever the surrounding asteroid field pulled it. Part of the station had been broken off, most likely by one of the asteroids.

"Someone got here first," Samus remarked casually. It took a lot more than that to surprise her by this point in her life.

"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of _something_." Tal's eyes were narrowed, and he nervously leaned forward, looking at the dead station. "They were pretty sloppy in their work, and they didn't bother to detonate the Power Core. Either there are incompetent humans..."

"Or that station was taken over by aliens," Samus finished. "These creatures have a tendency to rebel and destroy their creators, don't they? I suppose there is only one way to find out?" Already she was flying the ship closer to the station, scanning along the side carefully. Nothing appeared suspicious about it, not like a trap would feel.

"The evidence seems to point to the fact that it was destroyed from within," Tal added grimly. "If their experiments went awry... that's what happened on the other two stations."

Sitting down in the cockpit, Samus switched to manual control and began carefully circling the station. Fortunately, it seemed to have been built in a pocket with relatively few asteroids, so her ship was safe for now. How long was another matter; it would be safest to set the ship's computer to avoid them automatically. From the corner of her eye not watching her flying, she glanced at Tal.

"You're thinking they might have experimented on human life too, aren't you?"

Tal didn't respond with any words, he merely nodded tightly. The fingernails on one of his hands seemed to have elongated somewhat, or rather extended slightly from his hands. _He's getting ready for battle,_ she realized. _I probably should too._

"I don't want to dock with the station," Samus informed him, her tone business-like. "Even if that's possible, anything that happened to the station would happen to us. Plus, the aliens can probably travel in space, and the more distance I have between them and the ship the better I'll feel. I'll set the ship to orbit, and I guess we'll go there manually."

"That's wise." Tal nodded, then turned sharply and headed back into the ship. As soon as the autopilot was properly configured, Samus followed him into the airlock. The air hissed about them, and Samus activated her own supply. Tal's exoskeleton emerged from his skin again, covering his body. When they were released into space, Samus activated her jet pack and Tal spread his wings to balance himself on the side of the ship.

Directing herself toward the station and giving a short boost of power, Samus let herself drift toward the station. Moments later, Tal pushed off the ship and glided along a short distance behind. His wings served no useful purpose in a vacuum, and were now folded on his back. Oddly enough, Samus noticed that the foremost tips of his wings were pointed; the edges looked almost sharp. No alien had that, did they?

Their silent trip through space ended when they landed on the ship's hull. The instant she touched down Samus activated her magnetic boots; Tal gripped the metal with claw like feet and extended his wings for balance. Activating her highest intensity of laser knife, Samus cut a hole in the side of the station large enough to get through.

No air rushed out, indicating that this part of the station had already been drained. How much of it was still intact? Tal followed her a moment later, and they found themselves floating in the corridor. They were still within a vacuum, which meant navigation was difficult. While she could have used her jet pack, Samus preferred to save that energy for when she needed it.

Floating down the corridor at what seemed a terribly slow pace, Samus actually folded her arms and waited. After what seemed like an eternity, both of them bounced around a corner and found an even longer hallway before them. Rolling her eyes, Samus glanced at Tal. She made a motion to go faster, and he nodded.

Moving back to the wall, Samus leapt off it as fast as she could, propelling herself down the corridor. Tal did the same soon after, speeding after her. This trip was far more her style, and they soon found themselves nearing the end of the corridor, which opened into a much larger room.

Turning in midair, Samus used just enough of a pulse in her jet pack to slow her down. Tal dragged himself to a halt by putting two fingers to the side of the wall. At the exit, they carefully glanced out into the larger room.

It was an atrium, Samus instantly realized. The bounty hunter hadn't been in many science faculties before, but she knew the basic design of this manner of station. Everything was stark and sterile. Normally she was in favor of efficiency, but efficiency didn't have to be so... boring. There appeared to be a corridor on from the room that had an airlock of some sort.

Raising a hand, Samus indicated that Tal wait a moment. Something seemed wrong about this room, something that she couldn't put a finger to. It was only intuition, but that had served her well in the past. Flipping through the modes on her visor, Samus discovered that the room was relatively heatless and steeped in nega-photon radiation. Nothing seemed amiss... unless that was too much radiation. Actually, it seemed like it was shifting, but it could also have been a trick of the eyes or radiation movement.

Because they were close enough together for Tal to see through Samus's visor, Samus gestured to the room and raised an eyebrow. He nodded slightly, confirming her suspicions. There was something up. Indicating she'd go in first, Samus gestured for Tal to wait, then pushed off into the room.

For a while she just drifted, in the complete silence of a vacuum. Suddenly something launched itself through the air toward her. Immediately activating her jet pack, Samus swept up out of its path. She landed on the ceiling and fired down at the alien, destroying it before she could get a proper look. There were things hiding in here, then...

Aliens launched themselves from a number of places on the ceiling, careening toward her. They took Samus mildly off guard, though not enough to worry her. She didn't even have to make an effort in this case, as flares of energy shot from where Tal was positioned, frying the creatures.

Emerging from the corridor, Tal flipped himself up to the wall above it. Neither of them believed that there were no more monsters in this room. Both of them were correct. Moments later, knowing their ambush had failed, several groups of aliens launched themselves into the room as well.

Pushing off the ceiling, Samus let herself drift down into the room as she picked off aliens. One of the creatures leapt from the ground to slash at her, but Samus smashed a heavy boot directly into its face. The force sent the creature tumbling back in the direction it had came, and sent Samus rocketing through the room. Several of the creatures dove at her, aiming to take advantage of her moment of weakness.

Unfortunately for them, Samus was a veteran of fighting without gravity. The instant she had an object off which to push, she turned in midair to face them, her guns blazing. Using short bursts of her jet pack, she had a significant advantage over the aliens, which could only predictably drift where their momentum took them.

As she fought, Samus kept an eye on Tal. Not that she expected that he'd need too much help, more out of curiosity. He had changed since she had first met him, and she wasn't certain what exactly he could do.

His fighting style was somewhat unsteady, as he'd probably never had to fight in zero-gravity before. Mostly he leapt from place to place in the room. Though he didn't use them often, the flares of energy that he could shoot from his hands always hit their mark. Just from what she could see, she estimated they were about as powerful as a standard plasma cannon, possibly a bit stronger.

One of the creatures attacked from above while Tal was dealing with several others and managed to actually connect. The blow bounced off Tal's exoskeleton, though it sent him hurtling down toward the floor... or toward the wall, rather, but it was all the same. Somehow landing on his feet, Tal leapt off the surface, destroying the creature before it could reach another object and jump away.

Blinking, Samus found herself distracted enough that a creature actually managed to deal minor damage to one of the legs of her bio suit. Blasting it away with a focused laser, she glanced back at the place where he had pushed off of. The walls of the room were metal and quite strong, but where he had leapt from there were massive claw marks. Quickly she mentally calculated how physically strong someone would have to be to do something like that and raised her eyebrows. Tal would be fine by himself.

At last the aliens had been destroyed, or at least no more felt bold enough to attack them. Activating her magnetic boots again, Samus walked down the side of one wall and toward the corridor that moved on. Tal struck the ground hard, but dug in his claws to prevent himself from bouncing away. Pushing off the floor at an angle, he floated to the airlock as well.

Tapping at the computer, Samus discovered that it was still operational. How fortunate; air would be useful. The airlock opened for them, and they stepped inside. Not long after, they found themselves in a corridor with air once more. Almost subconsciously Samus checked if the air was untainted, then set her suit to run from it and refill its stocks. Who knew the next time she'd have an actual air supply?

"Talking is... convenient," Tal reflected, voice emerging from the exoskeleton. "At this point, we really have only two objectives. We need to get all the files from these ship's computers and destroy the Power Core."

"We'll split up," Samus decided for both of them.

"I'll handle the files, I brought a data storage device with me. Give me ten minutes before you set the charge on the Power Core and I'll meet you back at the ship."

"Good." Before Samus could say more, sounds began echoing through the hallways. Many of them were vague scuttling noises, others sounding like feet. Wordlessly Samus and Tal glanced at each other, then rolled their eyes. Turning, they began moving down the corridor, even as the swarms of monsters came to greet them.

_The stupid things must have heard us talking,_ Samus thought as she fired her cannon through the first of the beasts. _I had hoped we'd killed them all earlier, but I guess this station did a lot of experiments._ Ducking, Samus avoided a creature that foolishly launched itself at her and blew it apart as it floated over her head. It didn't seem to remember that they still had no gravity.

Everything was really almost too easy. The monsters were more intelligent than ordinary aliens, that was true. However, they were still mentally very young, and hadn't done anything other than kill the scientists on the station. None of them were very powerful, so she could take them out without much trouble.

This left her time to observe what Tal was doing. Now that they were in air, he had expanded his wings and was using them to move himself. Because of the way he flapped them, it almost seemed as he was just running along the floor or walls. It was interesting to watch him because he didn't really fight like a human. More like an alien, or one of those martial arts masters that occasionally appeared in old movies. Whatever the case, he seemed to be extremely highly trained... but also alien.

Each of Tal's arms had become a weapon of hard exoskeleton tightly over muscle. His fingers had a layer of black exoskeleton over them, and the ends moved down into very sharp points. They were really like knives, almost as if they had been designed that way. And while Tal couldn't use a gun at all, he was a master of his own claws. There was a sphere of Tal's striking range, and anything that entered it was sliced apart.

After so many years at her job, nothing could really scare Samus Aran. She'd seen too many horrible things to be unnerved by any sight. Yet in a disinterested way she noted that this was mildly disturbing. Tal fought like a monster, not like a human. What was he really?

Quickly they parted ways, leaving a few of the surviving aliens trailing behind them. Samus discovered that this station was almost exactly like the other one, in design and structure. A few of the experimental labs appeared to be different, but she didn't have time to examine them. Did this station have a Metroid specimen as well? Had there been Metroid instances she'd never even heard about?

Touching a panel and opening a door, Samus found herself quite startled by a grisly sight. The body of a dead scientist floated in midair. A gash had been ripped through his chest; blood floated in the air in perfect spheres. Vacantly the scientist's dead eyes stared into nothingness, but they were far too close to looking at her for comfort.

Samus took in all this in an instant and reacted before she had time to think, blowing the corpse's head off. The energy from her cannon cauterized the wound, and actually decreased the amount of blood in the air. Somewhat disgusted, both at what she saw and at herself for reacting so poorly, Samus shoved the corpse aside and continued on.

She ran into more bodies, but few aliens. The former she ignored, the latter she blew away. By this point she had almost gotten to the Power Core itself. Only four minutes elapsed so far... Tal had underestimated how fast she could move. Perhaps he'd need more time... she couldn't expect anyone to be able to keep up with her.

Blowing away the final wall in her path, Samus entered the Power Core of Station Emerald. This power core was broken, its energy drained away. There were incredibly high levels of radiation all throughout the chamber, and they immediately flooded over her. Automatically her suit shifted to a mode that defended her against any radiation damage.

Grateful she'd saved power in her jet pack, Samus flew into the chamber and landed atop a catwalk. Calmly she walked toward the dark Power Core, gaze flickering to the clock in her bio suit. Still a long time to wait yet. Finding a bomb, Samus fiddled with the lock but didn't arm it. Tal had said ten minutes and she'd give him exactly that.

Leaning against a catwalk, Samus glanced up at the same time the massive alien launched itself down at her.

-

In retrospect, there are more cliffhangers than I remembered.


	12. Genesis

Thank you for the reviews, specifically Control. I very much appreciate feedback, and I generally attempt to respond in some way. As for issues of formatting, I sincerely apologize; I had formerly believed that this site's new uploading policy had simplified my task, but it appears that such is not the case. This chapter I have uploaded numerous times, and I intend to experiment until I find a method of creating a pagebreak that is not immediately stripped (a series of dashes appears to work). Strangely enough, the word"Fanfiction . net"itself is removed when a single unit.

If I had to identify this story's largest flaw, it would most likely be overdone angst. At this point in its evolution, however, I think I will leave it the way it is. However, I am a great deal more cynical than you regarding the galaxy's open mindedness; we seem to have more than enough trouble dealing with _each other_. Ironic that you make this comment just before what I would term the most angst-ridden chapter, but this chapter should also make it clear that his problems are a bit broader than just being different.

The dress incident… will not be repeated.

-

Chapter 12: Genesis

Cooly Tal's gaze flickered over the information on the screen before him. He had long ago learned the only proper method of speed reading, and he had been forced to use it many times. Samus would give him ten minutes, but that was all he had. In that time, he'd have to have determined which information was important and which was trash.

It had taken a few minutes to find a proper computer terminal. There were many, but he was sure most of them were well guarded. Eventually he'd discovered a computer with complete access, though he'd been forced to melt his way through a thick wall to get to it.

Streams of information moved past his eyes as he scrolled down the list calmly. Getting power running to this terminal hadn't been easy either, but fortunately the station still had a fair amount of power left. It would do for now; he could look over the files more carefully back at Samus' ship.

Abruptly Tal halted, his eyes tightening. This folder... he recognized the name of the project it referred to. Briefly images flashed through his mind, but he drove them away. There was no time for flashbacks, he had to get this information as soon as possible. Downloading it into the portable drive he had carried, Tal opened one of the files within the folder, curious as to what it would say.

As he watched, listened and read, Tal found himself growing slowly number and number. One of the most human parts of his mind screamed in denial, but it was ignored. After all this searching... at last he had the truth.

"I would have been happy being normal," he muttered to no one in particular, his cynicism finally bubbling over. "I just wish I could live an average life, get an average job, die at 84.27 years. Is being human too much to ask?"

Just as the frustration reached a peak, Tal slammed a fist into one of the nearby bulkheads angrily. There was nothing he could do now. All he could do was try to be human. Once he made whoever was responsible for this pay, he'd slip away to a small planet and forget any of this had ever happened. Whirling on a heel, Tal stormed from the room.

Behind him, the bulkhead he had struck was ripped apart.

-----------------

Jerking her arm up almost immediately, Samus fed the creature hot plasma. The blast seemed to do relatively little damage, but she had fully expected that and was already jumping back. Where the creature landed it destroyed much of the catwalk.

Catching herself on a wall, Samus quickly glanced over the creature that had attacked her. It was the standard large monster, probably with several dangerous powers. Nothing that she hadn't annihilated before dozens of times. Still, she couldn't afford to waste any time with it.

Turning off the magnetic function of her boots, Samus dropped down the side of the wall. She barely moved beneath a massive blast that destroyed the wall behind where she had been moments earlier. Ignoring such things, the bounty hunter immediately fired with both barrels up at the monster. Apparently angered by the blows from her energy cannon, the creature dove from the catwalk toward her, gigantic claws slicing.

_Big mistake._ Activating just a single burst from her jet packs, Samus remained in place while the creature, which had apparently calculated for her falling rate, crashed into the wall beneath her. Smashing a foot into the creature's neck, Samus attached a grappling hook from an arm to the catwalk above.

As the creature slashed at her again, apparently supporting itself on the wall by digging in its feet, Samus retracted her chain. Immediately the grappling hook pulled her out of the creature's range and across the chamber. In midair, Samus fired a missile.

The explosion that resulted from her direct hit caused the creature to fall toward the bottom of the chamber. It crashed against the floor heavily, quickly becoming immersed in the piles of waste below. Narrowing her eyes, Samus watched down closely. Charging up a shot in one hand, she waited; if Tal had survived a fall like that, this creature could too.

It struck from behind faster than she had expected. She hadn't even been expecting it to be smart enough to attack from behind. Then again, it was probably especially intelligent, given its origins. One massive claw slashed into her from the side, knocking her to the ground and dealing a fair amount of damage.

On her side, Samus smirked and aimed her cannon directly at the creature's face as she fired. The blast sent the creature flying, and it actually broke through one of the side walls onto another level. It got to its feet slowly, but appeared to be majorly wounded.

Rising as well, Samus considered the damage to her right arm. It was severe, though the suit hadn't actually torn completely. While the suit would reinforce itself, she could probably only get the arm back up to 87 capacity. Undoubtedly, her higher functions were offline. Gritting her teeth, Samus watched the monster carefully.

Abruptly its maw opened, and a burst of flame exploded from it. Leaping into the air, Samus narrowly avoided the burning projectile. Had her suit not protected her, her hair might have been singed. What all was this creature capable of?

Before she had any more time to think, Samus realized that the creature had vanished. It had to be circling the chamber that had housed the Power Core... probably looking for a way to attack. Quickly activating Darklight Mode on her visor, Samus scanned the area and found one hotly glowing spot around the wall. So that was where it was...

-----------------

Stupid woman hurt creature. Was not weak. Did not crunch as human should. Arms flash. Hurt creature. Woman must die.

Though the creature's thoughts were animal, they connected with a fierce intelligence. Hundreds of tiny thoughts rushed through its mind, together forming a dangerous whole. It was clear to it that this woman could deal a great deal of damage, but her senses were not very good. All he had to do was attack suddenly and she would go down.

Once he had moved randomly enough about the rim, the creature took a deep breath and prepared to attack. When it expelled the breath, a torrent of flame rushed from his mouth, erupting through the wall and flooding into the chamber. Everything on its level was almost instantly incinerated. Rushing forward through the hole it had created, the alien prepared to slice whatever remained of its opponent.

On the wall above the creature, Samus calmly jabbed the muzzles of both her cannons into the alien's back and fired. These shots tore through its body, sending the monster falling down below, finally dead. After ensuring that it wasn't going to come back, Samus flew herself back up to the highest level and glanced at the time again. Still two minutes. Tal had definitely underestimated her.

Now that the fight was over, Samus realized that she had never switched out of Darklight Mode. Just as she was about to, she saw something bright coming in her direction. Whatever it was seemed to be fluctuating wildly about the visible spectrum. Relatively often it would shift beyond visible light, temporarily appearing black before changing again.

Flipping out of Darklight Mode, Samus glanced in the direction of the anomaly in time to see Tal leaping through the air. His armor had been entirely retracted, but it gave him no semblance of normalcy. He shot up through the air, landing on a nearby catwalk and leaping to the point beside her

"I'm done," he said tersely. His eyes seemed especially hard, but Samus didn't question why. Not now. "Blow it up." His command was too late; Samus was already affixing the explosives to the top of the Power Core. A few minutes should be plenty for both of them to get far away from the station.

Without a word both of them turned and bolted from the room. As soon as they reached the corridors Tal brought out his armor again. They ran into nothing along the corridor, which was at this point fine with Samus. Mentally raising an eyebrow, she glanced over at Tal, who was completely focused on the path ahead.

Not only was he acting strangely, his Darklight reading had become quite strange. In the past it had always been quite stable... more so than even most objects. What would have caused such chaos? Had he found something important?

When they reached the edge of the area containing air, Tal skidded to a halt before the airlock. Slowing down as well, Samus glanced at him quizzically. This mysterious stuff was starting to get on her nerves.

"Thanks for helping me," Tal said darkly. "I have to go." Saying no more, he abruptly sprouted wings and ripped through the ceiling. Air was sucked from the room at a terrible rate, the vortex almost sweeping Samus away. She activated her magnetic boots and braced herself, but when the blast faded, she realized that Tal was gone.

No... not this time... she was tired of being left in the dark. Not this time.

-----------------

It took Samus a short amount of time to fly to her ship. Within moments its engines were humming. Less than a minute later her ship was streaking through space. So it was that she almost immediately overtook Tal.

Nothing seemed to be propelling him. He flew as before, his armor out and his wings folded, streaking through space at a high speed. Not high enough to avoid her tractor beam. Blue light shafted out, encompassing him and dragging him inexorably backward.

Less than two minutes later, Samus was calmly standing in the back of her ship, her arms folded. Tal sheepishly scratched the back of his head. There was silence for a moment, then Tal retracted all his armor and sighed heavily.

"Why'd you run off again?" Samus demanded. "What's going on?"

"I..." Tal stopped, then sighed heavily again. He seemed confused and unfocused. Curious, Samus switched to Darklight Mode and discovered he was fluctuating even faster. Almost like he was going to explode or something... "Alright. I'll tell you the truth."

Raising an eyebrow, Samus waited.

"At the station, I finally found the files I've been looking for. They were the last chapters of the story I've been piecing together. More accurately, they were the first chapters, the ones that were important. I'd almost found them at Station Ruby, but the files were transferred here before I could get them.

"What I discovered... well, I found out the truth about my past. I didn't like it. Basically... I was shaken. I _am_ shaken. Every mental barrier or practice I've usually had is gone, leaving me unfocused and, well, pretty stupid. I'm sorry if I'm rambling. I just wanted some time to get myself together, to resolve all of this..."

"What did you find?" Samus asked. Her voice was completely unsympathetic, though she actually was. He was definitely right about being unfocused.

"There were a number of files, but," Tal floundered for a moment, then reached into a pocket and pull out a square black object. "I'll just give them to you. They aren't of any use to me anymore." Taking the disc, Samus glanced it over, noted it was quite a high quality device and then glanced back at him again. "I... I really don't like being so idiotic. If I leave now will you promise not to just track me down again?"

"Alright." Samus nodded, fingering the black disc. "I promise."

-----------------

Sighing, Samus fell heavily into her chair and leaned it back a few degrees. Reaching beside her, she ripped the top from a cup of yogurt and glanced inside. Typical. Not much could survive in the type of refrigerators space ships carried. Not really caring, Samus tapped a few keys on the control panel on the arm of her chair and then picked up her spoon.

Images appeared as the screen hummed to life, replacing the image of blank space. Quickly accessing the disc Tal had given her, now inserted into the computer system, Samus immediately glanced through the files that had been placed on it. Everything was in order, as it had been before.

She'd looked through the data as soon as he had left. It was a collection like the one he had given her before - letters, reports, tables, video feeds - but all of them were focused on a single project. A project that she was relatively certain was him.

Looking through the most boring and scholarly of the files, Samus discovered little but hard facts. Enough to prove to her that all this was real. Other than that, it was mostly busywork and scientific jargon a bit past her. Thick stuff, she recognized, not necessarily incredibly deep. All the important files appeared to be in a single folder, but she'd resolved to look at those when she had more time.

Now was such a time. After finding a desolate and isolated planet, Samus had landed on one of the moons and put her ship into cloaked mode. That had been ten minutes ago; now she was out of her bio suit and ready to look over the important documents in detail.

The one that first stuck out to her was a video feed that was obviously an introduction of some sort. It would probably be good to start there. Opening the file, Samus absent mindedly swallowed a spoon of yogurt while she watched.

As soon as the video had loaded Tal came on screen. She had a difficult time placing when the video had been taped: the location was ambiguous, the file had no traces and Tal was wearing the outfit he always wore. It was probably designed to accommodate his exoskeleton and wings and had to have been made shortly after she'd left the planet, she thought slightly off topic.

"I can't imagine why you'd be watching this, Samus," the video Tal began, "but if you are the conditions are probably negative. If I'm dead... none of this really matters. I don't know why I'd give it to you, but I'd like to account for all possible outcomes."

Samus smiled slightly. Apparently the video hadn't been taken too recently; Tal was still confident. Whatever uncertainty had come upon him recently was nonexistent here. She was relatively certain that Tal would regain it if he had enough time alone.

"As you've probably discovered," Tal went on, "nothing outside of this folder is too important. There is one thing you might want to get from them... the name of the project I was involved in.

"The Darklight Project was a massive endeavor, involving hundreds of experiments. You've probably seen the name of the experiment I was involved in: TA1. As you might be able to guess, that's where I got my name from. A pretty uncreative pseudonym, I know. But before that, no one had ever given me a name.

"Because I don't know the circumstances, there's not a lot I can say. What is here at the time of this recording should give you a good picture of why I am what I am. If I've discovered more than that, new files will be at the bottom of this folder." Tal paused, closed his eyes briefly and sighed. "Insert whatever leaving phrase is appropriate here."

As the video winked out, Samus was already tapping into the next document. Perhaps now was the time she'd get some real answers, as she anticipated. Before the document loaded, she glanced down the list and realized it was fairly lengthy. This yogurt might not be enough.

Scanning over the file, Samus realized it was a status report almost instantly, and found the bulk of the message soon after. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the word "Metroid."

_As I mentioned earlier, these various capacities seem to conflict with each other. Indicated in Experiment TIV, this is a reaction similar to the antigens in the blood. It appears that different species of aliens have different methods of utilizing nega photons, and these methods are not necessarily compatible._

_However, there may yet be hope for this phase of the project. Only yesterday we have obtained the Metroid specimen. It was assigned us to ship it to Station Ruby in a week's time, but I would formally request that this period be lengthened for an indeterminate amount of time. Preliminary tests have shown that the qualities of Metroid genes appear capable of wiping genes of antigens without destroying their other properties. Our estimation is that this is necessary for the creature's life draining abilities._

_In addition, we have come into the next portion of the-_

Metroid again. Narrowing her eyes, Samus rapped her spoon on the edge of her armrest as she thought about that one. Not only was someone going to get the book thrown at them for all these infringements, the Metroid issue made it personal. In some odd way, Samus felt responsible for anything done to the surviving specimen. Everything about this issue felt very, very wrong.

Closing that report and opening the next, Samus scanned until she found information relevant to the TA1 project again.

-_and the Metroid specimen has been the missing key for our entire experiment. My assumptions before were basically correct, though Dr. Rutger was able to provide a very interesting application of the syndrome that helped the final model become complete. Regardless of the method, Metroid genes allow for the compilation of others._

_Our results are as of yet unknown, though I may assure you we will eventually find success. Test specimens appear to be failing... it will take DNA of human complexity to properly incorporate the process. Fortunately, the unit we mentioned earlier will probably be ready within a few day's time._

_The only problem remaining is the Metroid specimen itself. It has resisted our efforts to use stem cells to replicate it, and we fear the project may require vast numbers of cells. While the process could prove quite successful, it would mean the termination of the specimen. We will not make any attempts until we are absolutely certain of success._

_I have been told by Dr.-_

Seeing that the report devolved into internal politics, Samus closed it and moved to the next file. This was had the promising title "TA1: Final Preparation." She noticed the next file was another video feed, but resisted the urge to open it.

_Everything has been made certain. Our subject is unaware of the process that it is about to undergo, and there will be no legal complications. Meanwhile, all other elements have fallen into place, and we are certain we will accomplish our goal. Unfortunately, the Metroid specimen will be lost, too much of it merged with the specimen to save the original subject. This loss is, as I have outlined previously, unavoidable._

_The laboratory is currently being prepared for the experiment, and will be ready before 16:00 hours. We expect the operation to use under an hour, and the aftermath a few days at best. Any results we obtain can only be sent to you when the experiment is complete._

Raising an eyebrow, Samus scooped another spoon of yogurt and simultaneously opened the next file. Looking up at the screen, Samus waited, but discovered her wait was not long. While the graphic clip was relatively long, it was of poor quality. Her craft had the swiftest processor money could buy anyway.

A scientist stood on screen, looking directly at the camera and appearing very serious.

"April 11th, year 1092, 21:00 hours. This is the final experiment in the TA1 project."

Turning from the mounted recording device, the scientist quickly moved away from the visible area. Now that he was gone, the area behind him became visible. Most obvious was a sterile lab table, though behind it a short distance was a large tube with a blue liquid inside. There were scientists bustling about, altering or checking various control panels, but Samus ignored them.

Noticing a group coming from the side, Samus decided they were the important element that should be watched. Moments later her suspicions were confirmed as she saw that they were carrying Tal. He seemed to be unconscious, but looked almost dead. They quickly unloaded him onto the table.

The operation that followed would have made many grizzled fighters sick. Samus had seen worse, but not much worse. Because the video was taken from some distance away and the scientists made no effort to not obscure the view, some of it was not visible. In any case, Tal appeared to be being pretty nearly ripped apart.

She did wince when they killed the Metroid specimen. Her thoughts flew back to how it had followed her like a confused child, but soon she had no more time to mourn. A massive block box was rolled over the massacred body that lay on the table like a corpse. The scientists backed away from it, leaving the box to hum for a few minutes.

Growing bored, Samus quickly sped up the video to the part where they raised the box. Tal lay on the table, looking almost as he had before. His skin was all together once more, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, and the only signs of the operation were white lines covering his body where the wounds had been closed.

While they moved Tal into the tube of blue liquid, the scientist again appeared on screen. As a disinterested observer, Samus noted that her gut level reaction was to want to kill him. Indirectly, he was responsible for taking something away from Tal. Taking away his humanity.

"There will be no visible differences for some time," the scientist explained. "His genetic code has been fundamentally restructured, but it will take time for every cell in his body to be recreated according to the new design. Furthermore, we are unsure how long it will take his systems to fully mature. There have been no complications with the procedure. We hope to send you a feed of the subject in action once it has recovered. Station Ruby out."

As the image closed itself, Samus remained motionless. Though she was tough, she wasn't heartless enough to be able to eat yogurt through all of that. In a way, she was glad to see this, glad that she finally knew. No wonder Tal was upset with all of them, if he had seen what they had done to him...

_The subject in action once it has recovered..._ such heartless, clinical words. They had said "it" as well, not "he." And whatever Tal was, Samus thought he at least merited a personal pronoun. Then again, they didn't really think of him as anything more than a weapon... which she had become convinced that he was designed to be. That was the only viable explanation for all of his combat oriented abilities. Plus, the supporting documents had alluded to such motives.

All the next file contained was a short bit of text. Curious, Samus opened it. It appeared to be a clip from a much longer report, with only the relevant parts remaining.

_This has been the sixth day after the final experiment of the TA1 project. We show many positive signs, and we believe the sacrifice of the Metroid specimen will not have been in vain. The subject's vitality has returned and is above normal levels. Brain activity has also begun once more and appears to be in a coma-like state. Its genes appear to have fully changed, and we are unsure what is halting the final stage of development._

_One expected but uncertain side effect has occurred. The subject appears to be in massive amounts of pain, and has been in such a state for this entire period of time. Any sound is muffled by the liquid and the containment area, but our mental readings indicate the pain is excruciating. For a period of time we worried that the subject's body was rejecting the new tissue and DNA implanted within it, but we have determined the pain is merely a part of the process of incorporating new elements. There are no outstanding concerns._

Ah. So that was why Tal had kept it. No outstanding concerns indeed. Shaking her head, Samus moved on through the files. There appeared to be a collection of them dated just prior to the experiment she had seen earlier. They described in gruesome detail every process that Tal was made to undergo.

All that truly surprised Samus was the number of experiments they did at once. She would have thought they'd treat their only Metroid specimen more highly, but instead they did a great number of what she considered to be risky procedures. Reaching the end of these files, Samus discovered a message dated just after the entry on the sixth day.

_Received: Station Sapphire_

_From: Station Emerald_

_Port: 192-168-250-1_

_An unknown disaster has taken place. We have received information indicating that Station Ruby was completely and totally destroyed. Several factors lead us to believe that it was destroyed by detonation of the Power Core, but there may have been other elements._

_From the few scattered packets of information we retained from the station's security systems, something assaulted the station from within. We believe this may be due to the escape of many of the hostile alien life forms being held on the station. The method of this is uncertain, and we have no hard evidence. However, many of the deaths appear to have been from claws such as those often found in aliens._

_Security measures will be increased here, and we would advise you do the same. This event is unfortunate, as we have no information regarding the results of the TA1 experiment._

Unfortunate... Samus snorted. Heartless indeed. Things were coming together rather rapidly, and now she understood. Most likely the first station had been destroyed when Tal had awakened, and he had rendered it scrap. Then they had met on Station Sapphire, leaving only Station Emerald... which was now gone as well.

All the other files appeared to have been much more recently uploaded to the disc. Glancing through them, Samus found her eyes growing wider and wider. She maintained a professional attitude, certainly, but she could understand how all of this would have shaken Tal so greatly. These were the files explaining his origins... the only part of the tale left shrouded in mystery.

His life had been a lie. Project Darklight had been going on for a rather long time, Samus realized. Both of Tal's parents had been scientists, essentially bred for the sake of the experiment. Their child did not exist in the eyes of the law, so could not be traced to anyone on the station, nor would it be missed. Though Samus did not recognize his mother's name, she did recognize his father's: Dr. Walters.

That was what had stripped Tal of his composure. To learn that from the beginning his creation was solely for the sake of a cruel experiment, that his genes had been carefully meted and controlled by radiation from his childhood, that he never had any more of a name than a few numbers attached to a project. It was a solemn truth indeed.

And at last it made sense. Tal had every reason to be angry, and every reason to want to settle the score. No, it wasn't just that; had he wanted to get even he had already done so. Now, she guessed, the issue was more focused on making sure Project Darklight was shut down. Above all, this was about making sure nothing like this ever happened again.

As her eyes narrowed, Samus bent her spoon in one hand. Nothing like this would happen again... not if she had anything to do with it.


	13. Tautological Destiny

Again, thank you for the reviews.

Control: I am not certain I entirely agree with your justification of the angst, but if you feel it is justified I am not about to quibble.

The plot is a great deal more lengthy than you indicated in your review, but by the terms you specified it isn't necessarily going to get any better. I do think, however, that it is worth the space it is given at the same level as the rest of the story. Personally, I was not too big a fan of _Snow Crash_, from what I remember of it, so that may not bode well.

But regardless, I hope this chapter is also enjoyed.

-

Chapter 13: Tautological Destiny

Lights blurred around Samus's ship as it glided through space. There was no sound, of course, but the hot flaring of her engines made it obvious they were roaring. Very few times did a bounty hunter, especially one of the caliber of Samus, utilize the full engines on one of their ships. When they did, almost everyone knew it was better to just stay out of their way.

Nothing interfered with the bounty hunter as she blazed her way back to Headquarters. Perhaps sensing something of her urgency, the station immediately allowed her access to one of the docks. As the ship moved into autopilot and settled into the station's gravitational field, Samus flipped down her visor with a loud snap.

-----------------

A small crowd of people was waiting for her, as usual. David was in the first row of those waiting outside the primary airlock, impatiently waiting for his love to step through the door. The group waited nervously for nearly a minute, becoming more and more restless as time went on. Hydraulic pumps hissed as the airlock opened, and the crowd surged forward...

Blinking, a small man with a mustache stepped from the airlock, the helm of his bio suit in one hand. There was a long, uncomfortable pause as both groups just looked at each other. Both seemed moderately annoyed.

"Where's Samus?" David demanded. Again the man blinked.

"Aran? She detached from her ship before it docked and flew to another entrance. That was at least two minutes ago."

He continued standing there confused, scratching his head, long after the crowd had rushed away down the corridors. What the h--- was going on in this place?

-----------------

Her suit hummed slightly as it came back online, and Samus flexed her fingers just to ensure it was working properly. This time she hadn't really been heavily damaged or used too many resources, but if she was going to be doing longer term research, she wanted to be fully stocked. Fortunately, she'd evaded everyone on the station except those she needed to talk to, so everything was running smoothly.

Now, however, she wasn't sure what she was going to do next. Certainly, she knew that she intended to help Tal. The people he was after had tried to kill her, broken dozens of laws and been intolerably cruel... besides, Tal deserved it. This goal was pretty nebulous, however, and didn't do her much good in the short term.

Quickly moving down a corridor just so she wouldn't remain in one place, Samus continued to ponder the situation. Tal was somewhat broken, and could be almost anywhere in the galaxy by now. Fortunately, she had his research. Perhaps it would be best to pick up from there, and find out who exactly was responsible for all of this.

Someone relatively high in the Galactic Council was corrupted, or at least was being used in this issue. Perhaps if she traced through-

"Welcome back." The sardonic tone of the voice instantly narrowed down the number of people that it could be. She wasn't really sure if she was grateful it wasn't one of her admirers or if this was worse.

"Hello, Veronica," Samus returned as coldly, glancing over the other bounty hunter. Veronica was, as she always was when on assignment, clad in her slim lavender bio suit. It was a model every bit as expensive as Samus' own, but of a different variety. Mentally Samus scorned the decision; her version was much more form hugging, but didn't really increase mobility and severely cut down on armor protection. Then again, Samus was relatively sure that Veronica did not make the decision based on functionality.

Neither of them spoke again for a moment, sizing the other up, as they always did.

"You've been vanishing a lot lately," Veronica commented, moving toward Samus' side.

"Business has come up," Samus returned, barely civil, moving in the same direction so as to still be directly facing Veronica. An unknowing observer might have said they were circling each other in a fight. In some ways, the observer would be right.

"As it always does. If you go away too long, you might lose your position as the highest ranked bounty hunter."

"I could. I take it you're still in number two?"

"Of course." Narrowing her eyes at the jab, Veronica reflexively tossed back a long black lock. "But that isn't really why I came to talk to you."

"Pray enlighten me." Behind Samus' dry tone was a hint of interest. What could Veronica's motives be for this?

"Then follow." Turning on a heel, Veronica began moving purposefully through the hallways. Raising an eyebrow, Samus sped up and matched her pace, forcing Veronica to look to her side, not the front. "Something happened here while you were gone, quite recently. An interesting situation."

"Are you going to tell me or not?"

"Such an abrasive tone," the other bounty hunter admonished Samus. "Patience. Someone infiltrated the station, we're still not sure how. He was snooping in some computer files, though we don't know what he was looking for. He probably would have gotten away with it, too, if I hadn't stumbled across the b------ in person."

"What happened?" Interesting. Bounty Hunter HQ had rarely been attacked, and Samus had never heard about anyone slipping inside unnoticed. Security was as tight as anywhere she had ever seen, including the primary station of the Galactic Council; primarily because much of it was cutting edge illegal.

"Caught him off guard; got a full shot of poison into his system. He died, but we've kept him around for interest sake and preserved his body. I haven't been able to pin it down, but there's something odd about him..."

Stranger and stranger. This was bizarre indeed, Samus noted, for Veronica to act like this. These events, however flippantly she had described them, had shaken her somewhat. Ordinarily she would never reveal any important information of her own free will. Perhaps this was all a ploy to prove her skill.

Tapping a code into a door, Veronica ceremoniously stepped aside and gestured for Samus to enter. Storming through the door, Samus glanced about the dark room. Moments later Veronica entered and raised the lights.

No emotion came close to straying across Samus' face. Briefly her gaze flickered over the situation, but it did no more. Veronica was watching closely and seemed slightly disappointed, as if she had expected to wow or shock her.

Tal hung in a tube on the opposite side of the room, floating in a blue preserving liquid. His body floated limply, as if dead. Not allowing herself to reveal anything, Samus flipped to Darklight Mode.

Instantly Tal lit up, glowing brightly in the darkness of the room. Just as she had expected. Resisting the urge to smile, Samus acknowledged that he was still alive. Though his body systems seemed to be in some sort of shut down mode, the currents of nega photons running through his body hadn't slowed in the slightest. Most likely the poison had merely administered a heavy shock to his system and put him in this state.

But she had very little time to consider his. Veronica was leaning against the wall, her arms folded impatiently. Best to feign apathy for now. After all, what did she have to do with some dead intruder?

"I should care why?"

"Pff, just thought station security issues might matter to you," Veronica responded, hiding her disappointment almost perfectly. "Go ahead, run around and do whatever you want. I certainly won't keep you here."

"Well, thank you for your permission," Samus cut back, sickeningly polite. In seconds she had left the chamber and was storming down a hall, mind cloudy.

How ironic. She had intended to find Tal, and now she didn't even need to. Fate seemed determined to force them to work together. It was just as well, though... the two of them were the only surviving individuals that could shut down the Darklight Project permanently.

What to do now, however? She knew Tal was alive, yet she couldn't be certain when or if he would recover. His circumstances wouldn't be conducive to a natural recovery, though she was pretty sure his system had probably eliminated the poison. Waking him, though, would be nothing less than an act of war, and Veronica would be on it in an instant. Far better to get a clear goal first, then enlist his help.

First, however, she needed to find a terminal capable of locking into the Bounty Hunter HQ information database. Very little in the universe wasn't on the database somewhere. Of course, the Darklight project technically didn't exist, but Samus was willing to bet she could still find a few links. That was probably what Tal had been banking on.

Reaching a door, Samus tapped in her code for the area. The door didn't move, making her frown and put the code in again. Nothing. Gritting her teeth, Samus drummed her fingers on the wall. This was not what she needed. Just when she started considering blowing the door down, a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Sorry, Miss Aran, they've locked that section."

Turning abruptly, Samus found herself facing down a smallish man she quickly identified as a scientist type. He quailed slightly under her angry gaze; she stopped glaring at him.

"Why can't I enter?"

"It isn't anything like that," he rushed to assure her. "They've just changed the code. It's IG1337B now. But trust me, you don't want to go in there."

"Why not?" Samus asked, raising an eyebrow, already putting the new code to memory.

"The place is a terrible safety hazard. The work of madmen, I tell you. They're doing some experiments with burst weapons of a biological type, and they aren't being too careful with the experiment results. What that boils down to is deep tubs of acid all over the floor."

Samus was already putting in the code. She strode through the door and the scientist scurried after her. He seemed worried the instant he stepped in the door, and she understood why. It was as he had described... lab equipment was over much of the floor, and there were several pools of opaque green acid in the floor.

"How dangerous is it?" she asked the scientist. He jumped slightly, as if startled by your question.

"That's the worst part," he answered, edging a bit further away from the pools. "When it comes into contact with human flesh it races through the system, essentially altering the DNA so quickly that it is destroyed. When it comes into contact with a non-organic substance, it eats through it almost immediately. They tested the material bounty hunter suits are made of, and the substance destroyed that nearly as quickly."

"Ah. Quite the hazard."

"They're mad, I tell you. I sure security is going to shut them down soon." Without another word the man quickly moved through the room, cutting far around the pools of acid. Walking casually but carefully past them, Samus shook her head. The scientist types at Bounty Hunter HQ were mostly the deranged type that had gotten their licenses taken away everywhere else. This, perhaps, went too far.

Through the room, Samus found a computer terminal and pulled up a chair. What would their next step be?

-----------------

Gunfire broke Samus awoke rather rudely. Energy weapons, medium caliber. Most likely two separate groups engaging in guerilla warfare in corridors. Ten to twenty meters away. Already sitting up in bed, Samus shook her head once to clear it and leapt to her feet.

She'd fallen asleep in her bio suit, as she often did. After a late night of research, she had been too tired, and there wasn't any good reason to take it off anyway. Now she was quite grateful that she had gone with her conventions.

Arming her weapons and slipping her visor to a mode more battle-ready, Samus tapped on the computer terminal near her bed. It lit up with a bright red border, indicating an alert of the highest level. Interesting; she'd only seen a red level alert once before. A large group of space pirates had attacked the station in unison, and all the bounty hunters had for once worked together to destroy them.

This time, however, she had no explanation. Annoyed with the computer's speed, Samus continued to listen to the noises. They were coming closer, but only in an extremely slow manner. She had time, then. At this point knowledge mattered more than speed.

The first instant she could use the computer Samus brought up the station's messaging system. It was almost completely empty... logical considering a battle was being fought. Only officials and a few others were online, most likely exchanging important information regarding the fighting. Finding the name of an official she knew, Samus fired off a quick message.

_Samus Aran: What's going on, d-----?_

_Admin Orjuela: The situation broke out into an attack._

_Samus Aran: Situation?_

_Admin Orjuela: The Galactic Council one._

_Samus Aran: Explain._

_Admin Orjuela: Okay, but we need you to fight._

_Admin Orjuela: A bunch of GC toughs showed up recently. Big ship. Big guns._

_Admin Orjuela: They demanded something involved with a TA1 project._

_Admin Orjuela: Operator told them they were full of it. They didn't like it._

_Admin Orjuela: We found out there is some specimen of theirs._

_Samus Aran: Too late, right?_

_Admin Orjuela: Right. They're gonna take it by force. You gonna fight?_

_Samus Aran: Yeah. Thanks._

Shutting down the computer, Samus shifted both of her arms to energy cannon mode. Just when things were becoming peaceful again, idiots with guns became involved. Now this situation was going to devolve into another shootfest. _Story of my life._

Slipping out her door, Samus listened again for the gunfire. Surprisingly close, now. It didn't sound like anything very organized, mainly a lot of scattered fighting over the ship. That was what she'd expect, given the nature of the attack. Everything was probably thrown into chaos, and she couldn't be certain where anyone was. Most likely she'd run into a few battles on her way.

The lights in the corridor were on dim, probably due to the station's situation. Shifting her visor to low light mode by reflex, Samus began to run down the corridor. Now was the time to make her move. A bit sooner than she would have liked, but it would do. Raising a gun and skidding around a corner, Samus began to smile slightly.


	14. Dissolution

I have been sincerely attempting to upload this chapter for some time now and have been delayed by a variety of circumstances. Its arrival on this date is pure coincidence, but nonetheless I wish you all a very merry Christmas. Hopefully you all have family you would rather spend time with than read this, but none the less...

Samus' suit's powers and associated abilities are actually based more on the original two Metroid games than any of the more recent ones (which I have not played to a great extent). Aesthetically, her suit looks like the basic Power Suit, with a bit of the Varia Suit thrown in.

I'm somewhat surprised that anyone actually cares about the blanking of swearwords; most people that I know read over them as if they were not there (it doesn't help when strips out all my asterisks or dashes, however). If it really means that much to you, however, I will alter this in future chapters, providing that I remember. Meanwhile, thank you for the insinuation that there is tension to be detracted from.

Thank you for dropping by, anonymous. Now, without further ado, the chapter, which is a rather important one in terms of shaping the course of the story.

-

Chapter 14: Dissolution

Before he became aware of anything else, he was aware of the change in temperature. He had been encased in a chilling liquid that lapped at his skin, but then he no longer felt the cold from it. Soon after, he realized that the liquid was draining down, and the glass covering that bound him was pulling away.

A blast of heat came next, evaporating the liquid over his body and sucking it back into the machine. Most definitely, they were opening him again. It would probably be best to continue to pretend to be dead, wait until whoever this was got into close range. Weak as he was, he didn't want to take an energy attack. If they got into his striking range, however...

Opening his eyes a mere fraction, Tal looked into the room, prepared to face any attack. He didn't expect his clothes to hit him in the face. Reflexively catching them before they hit the ground, he pulled himself to his feet by the edge of the container that had held him.

He looked up just in time to see Samus fire rapidly into the corridor, dropping three unarmored thugs. She glanced over her shoulder at him briefly, then turned back, training both her guns toward the door. A slight smirk appearing on his face, Tal stepped from his former prison.

"What's going on?" he asked, pulling on the dark pants. She'd managed to find his modified clothes, too. Good... he'd probably need his exoskeleton soon.

"Some screwy government types are after you, and they're willing to fight through the station to get you. From what I can tell, the bounty hunters in the station are scattered around and have a lot of different motives. Some are fighting them, some want to give them what they want, others are randomly looting."

"Great," Tal muttered, pulling on his shirt. "If they wanted to be any more encouraging I guess they could just shoot me."

"How'd you let yourself get captured, by the way?"

"She caught me off guard. Trust me, that poison won't work again." Even as he finished his sentence, Tal stepped beside her, his body encased in exo-skeleton armor. Both of his arms had again become those wickedly sharp claws, though his wings were retracted.

"Good. I found out a few things about our situation, but I think it's more important to get out of here first."

"Any particular plan?" Tal asked as both of them broke into a run down the corridor. There were periodical bodies along the corridor; Tal was certain they were Samus' work. In any case, it allowed them to run at top speed.

"Kill anything that attacks us, basically. We're going to my ship."

"Good enough."

Pulling in front, Samus led them through the station toward the airlock. She noticed, however, that Tal decreased his speed to let her do this. Good. Now she didn't have to worry about slowing down for him. They made significant progress, at least for a journey on foot. Using the station's transportation system would be both dangerous and stupid.

As they darted around a corner, Samus first noticed the men in their way. They all wore light body armor, with Galactic Council logos on the front. All of them were facing the opposite direction in the corridor, guns at ready, as if prepared to fire on some other enemy. Stopping herself in an instant Samus caught Tal before he could move any further and jerked him back around the corner.

"Are they in our way?" Tal asked softly. Samus nodded. "Should we just take them out?"

"Basically that, yeah."

"Alright. However, things would probably go much faster if you got a chance to snipe..." Tal's eyes wandered down the passage and abruptly Samus understood what he meant. Not bad. Nodding with a slight smile, the bounty hunter vanished into the corridors.

Retracting his armor, Tal calmly stepped around the corner and began walking forward. Hearing him, the soldiers whirled about in a panic, guns aiming at him. Shots were wildly fired, but merely burnt holes in walls far from Tal. Before they fired another volley, the group appeared to recognize him.

"It's the specimen!" a commander shouted. "Capture it!"

Immediately they began to fire, shots carrying the power to stun, not lethal force. Before any of them could bring their weapons to bear, Tal brought his exoskeleton out with lightning speed. By the time they fired, their shots merely battered into him. The energy dissipated against his armor, and no kinetic force carried with it. As a result, Tal merely stood in the corridor, their fire bouncing harmlessly off him.

The next moment Samus burst through a door, behind the soldiers. Both her guns were flaring before they had any idea she was there. A few turned in time to catch shots in the chest. Their armor wasn't quite strong enough to match her higher caliber plasma cannon, and all of the soldiers were down in a few seconds. Not really fearing for Tal's safety, Samus let herself fire without restraint. As a result, some of her bolts hit him, though he just braced himself against the impact.

Flipping to her feet, Samus continued down the corridor. Tal was beside her almost instantly.

"Don't hit me too often," Tal advised. "My armor has its limits against weapons as strong as yours."

"Fine."

They had no time to speak more, as the next instant more soldiers rushed down the corridor toward them. Both reacted instantly, attacking. Though most of them were mowed down by Samus' fire, those that remained were annihilated by Tal. From the corner of her eye, Samus noticed that his claws had little trouble with their body armor.

Idly Samus found herself wondering why the Galactic Council bothered. They should know that these soldiers didn't stand a chance against hardened bounty hunters. There were far more powerful human units in the Galactic armies, she knew, and plenty of robotic fighters as well. Why use these?

As they came into a larger room, Samus abruptly put a few things together. None of them had really caught her attention, but each had been filed away. Now she got an answer to her question. All of these soldiers were no more than a decoy, a way of lulling the bounty hunters into a false sense of security. Their true goal was capturing Tal, and they could do that in far less obvious ways.

Of course, the group of bounty hunters wearing Galactic Council insignias had a good bit to do with her sudden revelation. She and Tal realized something was wrong at the same instant and backpedaled as fast as they possibly could. None of the bounty hunters seemed to be watching for them in particular, so they managed to get around a corner before heavy fire rained down after them.

"What now?" Tal called to her. She noted with a certain degree of admiration that he hadn't lost his cool. Whatever uncertainty he had been battling before was completely gone.

"We go around," she answered tersely. "Right in this corridor, then-" she broke off abruptly with a slight groan.

"What?" Tal asked, rapidly taking a corner, briefly running along a wall and then returning to the floor.

Turning the same corner, Samus clapped a proximity mine on the edge of the wall and then followed before continuing to speak.

"We have to go through someplace bad," she answered, mentally cursing. If there was such a thing as fate, it was probably laughing at her. They'd have to go through the area filled with completely lethal acid. She didn't like it, but it was the fastest way. Anything else would require that they go pretty far around.

They reached the doors to the lab turned death chamber soon, but not quickly enough. A massive set of blast doors slammed down over the computerized door, locking away the terminal that opened it. Then they'd gotten to the computer system pretty quickly. Most likely they had split up and were covering all possible exits to trap them against the blast door. If they didn't just nuke the entire area. Damn. She was dealing with bounty hunters now, not just soldiers.

"I can get through the door," Tal told her. "Can you hold them off?"

"Consider it done," Samus answered. She dropped to a knee and began charging both her weapons. They had been followed pretty closely, and hadn't gained too much on their pursuers. The instant she heard noises in the corridor she let loose a volley of fire.

Realizing she was prepared for them, the bounty hunters held back, finding cover around corners and trying to snipe at her. Flipping to heat vision, Samus watched their energy sources and opened fire the instant they moved around the corner. She didn't really managed to hit any of them, but they were effectively bottled up in the corridor.

Behind her and to the left, Samus could barely see Tal standing some distance from the door. The bounty hunters had just gotten there when he pulled back his head and then spat. Something massive and clear shot from his mouth, striking the blast door and splattering.

Moments later, the entire door caved away, crumbling as it was eaten apart. Acid? Samus' eyebrows moved up slightly. So Tal could spit acid now? Firing two rockets, she covered the corridor in explosions then whirled to follow Tal through the destroyed door. As they ran Tal wiped his mouth and spat to the side, and his saliva ate through the floor.

"Stay out of the pools," Samus advised as they raced into the room. "They'll kill you." Tal merely nodded in response.

Just as they were midway across the chamber, the opposite door opened, revealing another group of bounty hunters. Mentally groaning, Samus leaned back and activated her jet packs, sending her flying back across the chamber. She landed on the opposite side, behind some laboratory equipment and moments later Tal slid in beside her.

Already fire blasted into the large object at their backs, and they both knew it would pretty soon be destroyed. Both divisions of bounty hunters were there now, converging in the room. Setting her teeth, Samus glanced briefly at Tal.

"This might be it," she said grimly.

"Might?"

"I don't intend it to be."

"Good," he smiled briefly, and then his exoskeleton closed over his face. "If one of us makes it, they'll make sure the people who did all this are taken down permanently, right?"

"Right."

Abruptly both of them broke away from cover, streaking in opposite directions and firing. Shots flared from Samus' guns in rapid succession, flares of energy broke from Tal's claws. The sheer power of the attack momentarily stopped the bounty hunters in general, but they quickly recovered then spread out.

Rolling and moving under a series of shots in her direction, Samus responded in kind. Two of the bounty hunters were blown backward, but she knew they'd survive the attack. Three others, meanwhile, leapt to the side and fired a great deal more. Coming out of her roll, Samus leapt into the air. Combining the maneuver with a boost from her jet pack, she rocketed into the rafters of the ceiling.

Taking cover behind a large beam, Samus fired below. Amid her plasma fire she launched a rocket, which created enough smoke for her to slip away from her position. As she found a new location in the shadows, she noticed the rafter where she had been was now no more than a pile of twisted metal.

While the others glanced about for her, she calmly charged up a shot. There was a bounty hunter down below, one apparently beginning to use heat sensing vision. Not good. The instant Samus had a full powered shot ready, she focused on the back of his head and fired. Such a focused shot ripped through his already damaged armor, immediately dropping the bounty hunter.

Another of her opponents threw something toward the metal girders, and Samus wisely leapt away from them. She was dropping toward the ground, firing, when a massive burst of electricity blazed over all the metal in the ceiling. On the ground, she dodged several bolts and then noticed a grappling hook streaking toward her head.

Catching it inches from her visor, Samus jerked it hard, pulling its owner from his feet. After firing a rocket in his direction, Samus switched to pulse cannons and sent a barrage of minor fire over the amassed bounty hunters. It managed to throw off their aim enough that only a few weak shots struck her.

Flipping back and behind cover, Samus realized her true plight. The danger was not in the battle itself, though these bounty hunters were certainly dangerous, but that she would run out of resources before her opponents did. As long as she was armed, she was a match for all of them, but if she ran dry...

Guessing that someone would have thrown a grenade at her, Samus broke away from the lab table that had protected her from fire. It exploded in a massive fireball; she was already turning and firing. While under cover, she had used her time to charge up a fully powered shot, and now that blast roared from the explosion into the fray.

One bounty hunter was caught and annihilated by the blast, but that wasn't enough. Samus dodged back, but still took a heavy shot to the shoulder that sent her skidding across the floor. Even as she rolled up the side of the wall, Samus considered her situation. Many of the bounty hunters were dead, but she was running a bit low. Anything could happen.

Across the chamber, the bounty hunters continued to fire from their cover in the corridor. They'd quickly learned that moving out into the room was a request to be annihilated. Those that had tried had been ripped apart in the shifting shadows. Realizing their opponent was primarily a close fighter, they stayed bunched as a group, keeping him on the run.

Smirking, one of the bounty hunters reloaded her gun and glanced through the room again. It was a matter of finding where he was hiding and blowing it away. By this point he was getting tired and soon he would be too slow to dodge any longer. This was really more of a game of cat and mouse than an actual battle.

Behind her a scream broke into her thoughts. Whirling, she took in the scene in an instant. A massive hole had been ripped in the wall, apparently from within. Around it the bounty hunters at her back lay dead, armor ripped through. She had an instant in which she looked at an monstrous exoskeleton-clad face before it rushed at her and she fired.

Her gun arm was batted to the side as it went off, and the blast harmlessly struck the ceiling. Before she could react again she felt a claw rip through the front of her arm. Her legs were swept out from under her, and then a claw bit into her other arm, slamming her to the ground. With both of her gun arms offline, she was helpless and quickly finished.

Though Tal's surprise attack had taken out many of the bounty hunters, those near the front and with the quickest reflexes had escaped into the room. They were now hovering with jet packs, shooting in his direction, and a few were going to join the fight against Samus. Tal had intended to escape through the corridor... but that was no longer an option.

Leaping into the chamber, Tal activated his wings in midair. They bore him higher up, over several missiles. Ramming a bounty hunter in midair, Tal slammed him into a nearby wall, then leapt off the wall. His action proved wise, as several laser beams intended for him now cut through the bounty hunter on the wall.

Suspended in midair, Tal hammered an elbow into the back of a bounty hunter's head. This momentarily threw the unfortunate man's jet pack off balance, and he crashed below into an acidic pool. The fatality was instant. Abruptly Tal realized that two people at one edge of the pool were charging cannons for a maximum power shot... not at him, but at Samus. In horror he realized that they intended to take out her entire half of the room, both her and the other bounty hunters.

His momentary distraction was too long. Diving from above, another bounty hunter got him in a viselike grip and sent him hurtling down. Unable to use his wings, Tal found himself falling directly for the acid. On the way down he grabbed the gun arms of both of the charging bounty hunters, pulling them down with him.

For a moment time seemed to slow, and he saw Samus across the room. She had been entirely focused on her own fight, but now she saw what was happening. In an instant she understood the bounty hunter's kamikaze attack, and what the other had intended to do. Before Tal struck the liquid's surface, he smiled slightly; a slow, sad smile.

Then Tal fell through the acid, the three bounty hunters dragged in with him. Dodging a missile, Samus burst across the room, wasting jet fuel but not caring. She dropped beside the pool of acid, which was still rippling from its additional context. On her knees, Samus found herself watching the water, beyond all reason. For some reason, the other bounty hunters hadn't managed to react to her movements yet and weren't attacking.

Bones briefly came to the surface of the acid and were quickly dissolved. Samus' eyes grew slightly moist, despite her best efforts. He was dead. That sad smile would haunt her for years, she was certain of it. Abruptly she knew that there was no way she would die in this fight, no way her life would end on the same day. She had made a promise, if an impromptu one, and she would keep it.

Blinking the tears out of her eyes, Samus abruptly realized that something had changed. She almost never cried, not for years. Even at her most afraid, at some of her saddest moments, she hadn't cried. Yet now she was. And now, she realized that it was because she had actually cared about him. Truly, honestly cared as she hadn't ever let herself do before.

Why could she only recognize this now? While he had been alive it was far too much to utter the word love, to let such a thing cross her mind. Now that such knowledge was worthless, now that he was gone, _now_ she could admit it to herself. Again and again Samus cursed herself for whatever made it come to be. _Why?_

If he'd stayed alive, she would have told him. It didn't matter if he wasn't completely human, or even if he wasn't human at all. She knew what human was. These bureaucrats, these scientists, these bounty hunters... they were human and she wanted no part in it.

Both of Samus' fists tightened at the same instant her eyes did. The past could only consume you. All one could do for a memory was honor it in the present. Rising to her feet, Samus turned to the others with bitter, tearless eyes.

-----------------

Grief drives some men mad. Some ignore it, some work through it, some focus upon it. Others will never grieve, suffering in their own private way. Many times this process takes years, though for some it can pass very quickly.

Almost every time, sorrow hinders the mourner. They become sluggish, unresponsive, handicapped by their emotions. Once they could attack once more, these were the tendencies that the bounty hunters were counting upon.

Not so with Samus. When she rose, her spirit had already hardened. It had crystallized, becoming unbreakable and sharp. Her shots were fired with a vicious precision, her movements fueled by carefully channeled emotions. Never before had the bounty hunters faced anything like what Samus had become.

Never again would they face anything at all.


	15. Fallout

I apologize for the delay in updating this story. While I feel certain none of you wish to hear about my personal problems, I will state this much in my defense: massive ice storm. That having been said, I will say very little about this chapter, only that it is the first of a number of shorter chapters that I apologize for (in terms of length, nothing else).

-

Chapter 15: Fallout

"Hello, everyone! This is John 'Johnny' Johnson, for Universal News. Make sure to stay tuned until 10:00, Terran Time, for our exclusive interview with the maker of the box office hit 'Things That Go Boom.' But now, the current news.

"The standoff at the Bounty Hunter Headquarters has continued, nearing forty hours total. As of this report, neither party has moved. For those of you who may not have been keeping tabs on the situation, the Galactic Headquarters for all bounty hunters was assaulted by a large force of Galactic Council troops.

"Representatives from the Board, a select group of administrative bounty hunters, have made various comments. They appear to vary from outraged to speculative, and two members of the Board said they fully intended to cooperate with Galactic Council requests. Several could not be reached. Because the Board is not a ruling body, it cannot make executive decisions for all of the bounty hunters in question.

"The Galactic Council has made no official statement on the situation, and no explanation for the attacks has been offered. Those who have been approached about the attacks have refused comment. Next, we'll discuss-

"This just in! An earthquake on Aidni IV struck several major cities and death tolls are being estimated between twenty and twenty eight million. Next, we'll discuss the latest in the world of pop culture, as a popular diva will enter her eighth marriage with-"

Samus shut off the screen and flopped back on the floor. Forty hours... such a long time to wait...

-----------------

Carefully Mr. Divel drummed his fingers on the edge of his desk, making the only sound in his quiet room. Just the pace to seem contemplative, but not so much as to seem impatient. His eyelids were just slightly lower than normal, indicating that his attention was fully on his guests, though drawn elsewhere by his all-important duties.

Two men before him droned on about the economy flagging. Figures rushed through his head like water, none of them new to him. Unemployment rates. Poverty lines. Death by starvation totals. Minimum wages. He knew everything they were spouting.

Had he been asked to repeat what was said to him, he could have done so in an instant. Never the less, Mr. Divel's mind was distinctly wandering. There were things far closer to him than economics currently developing. Against his advice, they had gone into the Bounty Hunter Headquarters shooting.

Already there had been heavy casualties. The average bounty hunter was, after all, far better equipped and trained than the soldiers under Galactic Council control. Because the specimen they needed was on board, wiping out the station was not an option. If they had intended to do so, however, he would have put his foot down. He was almost completely certain the station was illegally outfitted, and that there were heavy warships hidden nearby. An assault of that kind could cause a minor war. Anything that unified all the bounty hunters on one side had to be avoided at all costs.

Perhaps, however, they could be successful. The bounty hunters were split and disorganized, many of them working with the Galactic Council forces. While the facts he had received were sketchy at best, he knew that neutral troop death tolls were low, assuming you didn't count civilians, and the target had not been found.

But it was only a matter of time. He knew for certain that the target was incapacitated on the station itself. No matter how many troops he had to throw away, he _would_ get his hands on it. When they had begun there had been hundreds of scientists and three stations... now he had a pile of corpses and three broken wrecks. Their accomplishment would come into his possession.

No matter what.

-----------------

Leaning back and yawning, Veronica stretched for a moment. Pulling off the gloves of her bio suit, she slipped a nail file to hand and began carefully working at her nails. Keeping them nice was such a terribly difficult thing to do in her profession. Frowning at them, she toyed with the idea of getting a nail job done when she had the time.

Not now, of course. At the center of the Galactic Council camp, she was relatively safe, or at least they thought they were. Knowing all the bounty hunters she did, however, it was unlikely anywhere on the station was completely safe. There had already been a hacking attempt that could have been dangerous, but she had gotten the Galactic Council boys to blow out power to the station.

It was annoying not having proper lighting, but the generators were working fine. Most likely the scattered groups of bounty hunters on the station had generators as well, but there was no way they could work through the station. Explosives, on the other hand...

Shutting the nail file and slipping it back into place, Veronica replaced her gloves. Lightly touching the sides of her helmet from the outside and commanding it from within, she detached the head protecting portion and set it aside. Finding a brush, she began working through her luxuriant black hair.

Now the most dangerous thing was dying of boredom. There was simply _nothing_ to do. No one was moving or making any attempts. Other than a few minor skirmishes, everyone had more or less holed up into their own areas. About half the HQ was controlled by Galactic Council troops and the bounty hunters aligned with them. The other half was divided into different groups of bounty hunters, almost like a city was divided by gangs.

She didn't mind the wait too much, however. It gave her a chance to tidy up, after all, and she desperately needed that in her profession. Some yahoo was probably going to start shooting sometime soon, but she had enough of a meat shield around her that she'd be ready by the time they got very far.

Meanwhile, she had more important things to do.

-----------------

Slowly Samus' eyes flickered open. The ceiling. A moment later her mind was completely alert, all the recent events in place and considered, completely ready to act. Waking up without her bio suit on was strange... she hadn't slept without it for years. As a bounty hunter one could never be too careful.

But last night she'd decided that it really didn't matter. If someone arrived while she was sleeping, she'd be dead before she could wake whether she wore armor or not. Getting a perfect night's rest was her highest priority. Today would probably be long and difficult.

Sitting up in her makeshift bed, hair falling around her face disorderly , Samus took a moment to reorder her thoughts. After destroying the rest of the bounty hunters, she'd quickly made her way to an upper portion of the HQ. There had been a few brief but intense fights, but not with anyone capable of matching her. Overall, she still had a reasonable amount of power and ammunition left. While she had been sleeping she'd let her bio suit recharge anyway.

It was fortunate this place still hadn't been tampered with. This compartment had originally been built into the station in a few meters of space that didn't officially exist. The intent had been to hold smuggled goods here until they could be taken elsewhere. Almost any sensor would miss it, and there was no obvious door, making it a nearly perfect hiding spot. But the bounty hunter who'd built the place had died on a run, and Samus had taken it before anyone else noticed.

Pushing aside the sheets, Samus quickly moved across the room to her bio suit, which was lying against the wall darkly. Only wearing a standard grey full body suit her feel extremely vulnerable. Not something she wanted to extend by any means. It took something very important to get her out of her bio suit.

Locking the metal over her, Samus let the system fuse itself together and come online. Next it was most important to get her priorities straight. Highest on the motivations list was to get out of the Bounty Hunter HQ before the situation exploded, following closely by blowing away everyone responsible for Project Darklight. That didn't help much, though.

Her suit hummed softly and Samus got to her feet, still considering. At the moment she was low on supplies, firepower and information. She'd sustained pretty heavy damage in all of the fighting, too. Given those circumstances, she decided to first get back to maximum strength and then figure out where to go next. Most likely the Galactic Council forces wouldn't dare attack the station with Tal and their own troops on it, so she had time enough to prepare.

Flipping through several vision modes, Samus determined that no one was nearby her room. Pressing a hidden panel, she made the doorway shift open and slid outside. Closing and locking it behind her, she quickly moved down the hallway. Just in case, she brought all of her weapons online.

Mentally bringing up a map of the station, Samus determined the best point for her to repair her bio suit. Several floors down, unfortunately. Perhaps it would be best to find the abandoned core shaft, the HQ had long since switched to safer methods of powering the station, and fly down it to the proper level. Anyone could be in the space in between.

By instinct more than any sensory equipment, Samus halted before moving around a corner. Something was definitely there. Changing to heat sensing mode, she determined that there were two people between her and the door she wanted to enter. One was crouching just around the corner, and from his position she guessed he was manning a mounted gun of some sort. The other was sitting in a chair in a corner, guarding the door, most likely with another weapon.

Narrowing her eyes, Samus backed up slightly, then glanced to the side. Perhaps...

-----------------

Coughing, the guard continued to stare down the corridor, watching for anyone intending to encroach upon their territory. There hadn't been any action for quite some time, so they'd brought the watches down to only two people. They were carefully spaced so no rocket could take out both of them.

Wiping off one hand at a time on his pants, the guard held his grip on the automatic gun tightly. The instant he pressed the trigger the corridor before them would explode with plasma fire. Anyone coming around the corner or from the opposite direction would be killed instantly. Even a bounty hunter's armor would take heavy damage from something like that.

Behind him, the other guard yawned heavily. His other hand clutched his pistol tightly, ready to pick off anyone if he had a chance. But since the other guard could mow down anyway approaching, his job didn't matter that much. Whatever the captain said, though.

He didn't notice the fiber wire as it slid through the air, and felt it on his neck too late. The next moment he slumped in his chair, no more than a corpse. Behind him, orange armored hands slipped back into the wall soundlessly, the fiber wire retracting. Moments later a laser knife quietly cut away more of the wall and Samus stepped through.

Stepping noiselessly behind the guard, Samus slid an arm beside his neck. The needle emerging from her arm pricked his neck, and he gave only a slight gasp before slumping against the large gun in front of him. Pulling back the needle, Samus again stood, moving for the door. It was well locked, but not well enough.

Inserting a chip into the computer system, Samus retracted one of her guns. The metal around her hand pulled away, leaving her fingers free to manipulate the door controls. Moving past the security systems, Samus opened the door calmly and set it to lock itself when it closed again. In moments she was gone.

-----------------

Two bounty hunters stood on securely mounted platforms in the core, carefully watching. Not only were they completely vigilant, both were using infrared and energy sensors as well. If anyone so much as used an electric razor near the chamber, they'd know it. If anyone stepped into their sight, they'd see them immediately.

A bolt snapped on one metal sheet in the core shaft, and some plating fell toward the floor far beneath. Both resisted the urge to look up and instead glanced about for any intruders attempting to take advantage of the momentary distraction. The core shaft remained as silent as the grave.

Slowly Samus shifted downward, letting herself down hand over hand on the fiber rope she'd attached above her. It'd taken only a momentary noise to dig the end into the floor of the walkway above her. Now she was slowly moving down in the shadows, dropping lower. Coolant was pouring through her system, masking her body heat and bringing it down to room temperature.

Getting beneath another platform, Samus reattached the rope to it. Tying it in a careful knot, she prepared to continue letting herself down. Only one floor, now, and the door was shrouded in darkness. Best to leave nothing behind. Putting a hand through the meshing of the walkway close by, Samus severed the fiber wire above her with a knife, letting it fall away-

Abruptly one of the bounty hunters jerked his head down, sensing a soft noise. Lights blazed from his suit, eating away the darkness. There was nothing near the walls, nothing visible. Everything was exactly as it should be. Narrowing his eyes, he continued watching for other intruders.

Breathing a silent sigh of relief, Samus emerged from the small panel directly beneath the bounty hunter's position. Making sure the rope was solidly attached, she swung from the center toward the outside of the cylinder. As softly as possible she caught herself on the side, wrapping her legs around a pipe.

Upside down, Samus began forcing the sliding door open as slowly as possible. It was difficult work, but the bio suit was strong enough to push it open. Use of the doors mechanics, after all, would immediately alert the bounty hunters above. Getting a crack large enough for her, Samus dropped in and landed noiselessly.

Cutting off the fiber rope, Samus let it fall and hang down in the power core. They'd notice it eventually, but not soon enough. That had burned all the fiber rope her suit carried... just barely enough. Closing the door behind her, Samus moved down the corridor.

A slight smile appeared on her face. The right floor, now; forty meters and counting down...


	16. Making Do

"hellflamenarf" did a tour de force of the review section, which I suppose I am grateful for. To answer questions: yes, Samus needs to eat; for the purposes of this story the Chozo do not exist (as I said earlier, this is more based off the original games). Because all bio suits are made by human technology, any given set of suits can be equal.

-

Chapter 16: Making Do

Sensing something walking toward them, the fighters at the door immediately tensed up. The sound of weaponry humming was audible as all brought their guns online. Wordlessly the bounty hunters trained their guns toward the source of heat that was approaching them. Whatever it was, it was making no effort to hide itself.

Someone in an orange bio suit stepped into the corridor in front of them and stopped. There was a long pause as neither party said anything. While there were friends approaching, the bounty hunters had been alive long enough to know that friends and enemies were not that far apart. It could be anyone.

"State your name and business," the leader of the group of guards eventually barked through his bio suit.

"Samus Aran," the orange bio suit answered. "I want to get to the repairing zone. Is it still operating?"

"You don't get to ask any questions. Not now."

"Can you let me through?"

"You probably don't know, or at least you pretend you don't." The leader's finger tightened on the trigger inside the arm of his bio suit. This conversation was making him nervous. "This area is completely secured, it's one of the few safe zones."

"Safe for whom?"

"Any bounty hunter who isn't with the Galactic Council or one of the mercenary groups. _If_," he drew the word out suspiciously, "you're even a bounty hunter."

"My license," the figure explained, very slowly moving to pull something from a pouch. Bringing out a small card, the intruder tossed it toward them. Checking that it wasn't a bomb, the leader signaled for one of the other bounty hunters to pick it up.

"It looks authentic," he reported back. "Don't have the equipment to tell if it's forged."

"Hey Miss Aran," one of the other bounty hunters abruptly called. "You wanna go on a date?"

"Burn in a thousand hells."

"Yup, that's her."

Sighing, the leader of the group lowered his gun. He wasn't too familiar with Samus, but he was certain she wouldn't have sold out to the Galactic Council. She was certainly above joining one of the many renegade groups of bounty hunters stealing whatever they could find. Though he wouldn't admit it, he felt safer with her on their side.

Samus moved forward, ripped her identification from the other bounty hunter's hands and was allowed through the door. Pausing at the entrance, she briefly flipped up the visor to look the leader in the eyes. He flipped up his own visor, revealing him to be an older man with a shadow of white stubble.

"How safe is this area, really?" Samus asked in a low voice.

"All the entrances are guarded like this," he answered. "There are several ships cloaked nearby that will destroy anything that tries to attack this station from without. Someone shut down the computers, so there's no danger that way. Unless someone could break through one of the doorways, there shouldn't be any problems."

"And what all is inside this safe zone?"

"Old Bart is still repairing and restocking suits as needed. There are a few quarters we've managed to protect that people are sleeping in. Other than that, someone set up a bar. Things are really pretty relaxed, though everyone takes their turn at the doors. In all actuality, the Galactic Council doesn't have to go through us to get where they're going, so I'm not that worried about them. It's the toughs that bother me."

"Ah." With that Samus moved through the door. It slid shut behind her in several blast proof layers. In this area she was probably safe from being directly attacked, anyway. But nowhere on this station was safe. Not the way things were now.

There wasn't anything left here, anyway. The HQ was in such chaos it was useless to her and Tal was dead. She might was well take all that she needed and get out as soon as possible. Getting her own ship would be another challenge, but she'd take one step at a time.

It soon became obvious this area was far more relaxed than the rest of the station. People were acting basically normal here, going about their business as if they weren't in a war zone. She received and did not return a few nods from various bounty hunters that recognized her along the way.

Nothing much had changed, however, so she soon found her way to the repairing station. It was surprisingly slow, though not empty. A fair number of bounty hunters were lounging about, hands on weapons she noticed, but none of them seemed to need any repairs. Behind the counter a large man was leaning back in a swivel chair, snoring softly.

"Bartholomew," she mercilessly woke him up. Grunting, he glanced about slightly confusedly for a few moments, then his gaze focused on her and narrowed.

"Samus. Good to see you're still alive."

"I thought so too. You still running repairs?"

"Yeah."

"We need to talk," Samus told him, lowering her voice a few notches. He appraised her from beneath bushy eyebrows, then nodded and got to his feet. Jerking his head toward a back room, he swiftly vanished into it. Sliding around the counter, Samus followed.

"What are you doing this time?" the mechanic demanded the instant the door closed behind her. His arms were folded, though his expression was open enough. Samus sighed.

"I'll be honest with you... I'm ditching the Headquarters outfit altogether. There are some more important things going on at the moment."

Sighing heavily, Bartholomew put one hand to the wall and leaned against it, gaze unfocused. For the first time in her life, Samus realized that he was old. His hair wasn't grey, and he still had muscle, but there was something in his expression at that point that made her understand.

"This isn't going to be good, is it?" he asked, glancing back at her. "I haven't left here since the attack, so I only know what I've picked up from others."

"Things are bad," Samus agreed grimly. "Something in the Galactic Council bureaucracy is corrupt, and someone with a lot of military power is attacking. There's been some illegal covert operations for some time now. A bunch of the bounty hunters are on their side. Headquarters might not stand this attack."

"I see." Shuddering slightly as he straightened, Bartholomew kept his eyes closed for a moment. When he opened them, they were hard. "I'll make do in any case, and I have back up plans. The question is what you're going to do."

"Repair and restock my bio suit," Samus told him. "Upgrade it with _everything_ you can. I don't care if it's legal, or if it's owned by someone else. If it's better I want it. I'll pay you whatever you want, up to the maximum in my legitimate account, which may not be considered legit much longer."

"If you say so," the mechanic responded gruffly. Back to his old self. "I'll transfer the funds from your account first and then get right on it."

Nodding to him, Samus unlatched her bio suit and moved out of it. Immediately after she stepped away toward the door. A voice brought her to a halt with her hand upon the door.

"And Samus... the next time I see you, you had better still be alive."

"Count on it," she answered him, glancing back over her shoulder with the slightest of smiles. "I can't die yet."

Wiping off the glass and carefully replacing it, the bartender shifted to another glass and glanced over his shoulder. Everything was pretty much the same out there, and no one seemed likely to do much of anything. Cleaning the next glass, he set it down and glanced again, only to find someone sitting directly before the bar.

Blinking, the bartender lay his cloth over one arm and turned. A woman. Later twenties. Long blond hair. Bounty hunter's attire, minus the bio suit... holy crap!

"Samus Aran?" he asked incredulously.

"No really," she returned sardonically. "What is this place?"

"That question doesn't have a short answer," he warned.

"I'm not asking for one."

"Alright, then. Once the bounty hunters got together enough to clear out this area, and a few dissenters got picked off, they set up perimeter defenses," the bartender explained, leaning on the counter with one hand. "Not everyone had to guard the place, so everyone else started getting bored and restless like. We found this place and converted it to a bar, and now mostly everyone hangs out around here when they aren't busy."

"You serve things other than drinks?"

"What we found lying around. Rations and the like."

"I'll take that, whatever it is." Samus tapped a grey chip onto the table lightly. "Cash, I trust?"

"But of course. Give me just a moment."

It was longer than a moment. Getting her meal and not complaining, Samus began methodically chewing her way through it. The only real point of eating at the moment was for sustenance, so she couldn't have cared less what it tasted like. At least at this point no one was bothering her, which was the best she could hope for given the circumstances.

Bart had told her it would be a good ten hours before the modifications would be complete. Given the number of modifications he'd be doing, that probably meant that he was working on her suit immediately. Which was fine with her, but left her with ten hours and nothing in particular to do with them. There was nothing to do here, but she didn't want to try too much without being properly armed.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Miss Aran." David's voice. Abruptly leaving became a far more attractive option. "Imagine finding you here."

Turning away slightly, Samus became intensely focused upon her food. Ignoring the cold shoulder, David sat down on the stool beside her, rapped for a drink and then glanced over at the side of her head. Refusing to respond, Samus waited and hoped he would grow bored.

"Just got back from patrolling the area surrounding the safe zone," David said; a pathetic attempt at being casual. "Someone has to make sure no one attacks, after all, so everyone can stay safe in here. Had to take out a few troops, but it wasn't much of a problem. Those Galactic Council types really don't know how to fire a gun. Not that they could have stopped me anyway."

Then the bartender approached and took David's order, during which time he mercifully stopped talking to her. Mentally Samus snorted, watching him from the corner of her eyes. Did he honestly think he could impress her? Even assuming his story was true, she could still have killed him a dozen ways before he could begin to move. But he had mentioned Galactic Council forces... and she did need information...

"So, anyway, I was wondering-"

"Actually, I found your previous story fascinating," Samus interrupted, looking at him directly. Enough to distract him and make him stop thinking logically. "What was that about Galactic Council forces? That sounds pretty dangerous."

"Yeah, well, I was up to the task." Moron. Friggin' moron. "They had set up a little base thing not so far from here. Of course, I didn't see the need to fight them at the moment." Or didn't want to get himself slaughtered. "There were a few advance forces I ran into, four or five bounty hunters." Most likely three soldiers on break, if even that. "Not too much of a problem, though." Get to the point, dammit.

"Exciting," she commented, sarcasm in her voice barely detectable. "Where'd this happen?"

"Oh, around the C8 block. They set up camp there. If they didn't run away from me, that is." Finally; the information she was wasting this much time and dignity for. Her hand almost blurred as it slipped into a small pocket by her leg.

"I'll have to here more about it... later," Samus responded, leaning toward him just slightly. In the same moment her hand unobtrusively passed over David's cup. Gulping, he gave her what was supposed to be a suave grin and took a heavy drink from his glass. Excellent timing.

A few minutes later Samus stood up swiftly. David's head was resting against the bar, apparently in a drunken stupor. It hadn't taken much to knock out his system. In any case, she had the information that she wanted now, and no more reason to waste her time here. Subconsciously she shook her head. Moron.

Swiftly Samus moved through the corridors, locating the area in question. David's information was accurate enough, anyway, there were Galactic Council guards in the corridors even before she reached C8. Slowing to a halt before reaching the first wave, Samus considered her options.

It might be possible to break into the area like this, but she didn't want to risk it. Most likely there were other bounty hunters nearby allied with the Galactic Council. Getting past ordinary soldiers wouldn't be a problem, but she didn't want to fight anyone serious without her bio suit. She had two low-caliber plasma pistols on her, but that wouldn't be enough if she had to fight someone in heavy armor.

Sliding just slightly around the corner, Samus glanced toward the next corridor. As she had expected, there were a few guards. If she could avoid killing anyone it would probably be for the best at the moment. Instead moving around to another entrance, Samus discovered that this one was a rather large hall.

Surprisingly, there didn't appear to be very many guards in the room. One of the two doors had none, actually. Narrowing her eyes, Samus considered the situation more carefully. Both doors were at the end of corridors that branched off from the main room. From this angle, it wasn't possible to see into the corridors at all...

Closing her eyes, Samus concentrated on the situation. She _really_ wished she had her bio suit at the moment, so she could check, but that simply wasn't possible. Instead she could only work off the psychological. _Let's see... if I were a hidden guard, where would I hide?_

Guards around one of the doors, none around the other. That meant it could either be a trap of some sort, or there were other soldiers hidden nearby it. Focusing about the room, Samus abruptly noticed something shifting. There were a number of plants on display in one corner of the room, opposite the first corridor. Something green within them was a slightly wrong color.

Now that she was looking for it, the bio suit jumped out at Samus. So the other guard was somewhat camouflaged, aiming to snipe anyone going for the corridor. Not a bad plan, but poorly executed. Slinking out of her corridor, Samus broke along the wall and into the bushes with almost no sound. No one started shooting, anyway.

Prowling through the thick vegetation, Samus moved around to behind the other bounty hunter. This one wouldn't be easy, that was certain. Unarmed, it was pretty tough to take a bio suit out of commission without raising very much noise. If the other guards got suspicious, the gig was up almost instantly. Going in shooting was probably a bad idea in this situation.

Watching the area surrounding the corridor carefully, the bounty hunter was completely unprepared when a foot smashed into the back of her knee. With a slight cry she dropped instantly, though even as she hit the ground she was whirling to fire with both arms. Before she could pull the triggers, both of her guns were pushed out of the way and a leg smashed into the side of her head.

Kicked off her feet, the bounty hunter sustained no damage but had her visor driven directly into the dirt. Whirling on her unknown attacker, she fired blindly, unable to see past the dirt on her visor. Had she hit? Where were they?

The bounty hunter flipped up her visor, just in time to get a glimpse of the barrel of a gun in her face...


	17. Allied Front

My design for the suit was roughly based on what the original suit looked like (with a certain degree of clarification from later games), and the powers commonly seen in the Metroid series. Then there were a few changes for the sake of story or what I felt was more realistic in a technological sense.

-

Chapter 17: Allied Front

"What the hell is that?" one of the guards muttered, seeing shots go flying from the thick trees on one corner of the room. The others frowned and got better grips on their weapons.

"Think someone attacked the gal in the trees?" one of the others asked.

"Damn, I told her not to hide in someplace so difficult to see."

"Should we attack whatever's left?" another questioned.

At that moment something emerged from the trees, and all the guards immediately trained their guns upon it. They relaxed visibly when they recognized the familiar green bio suit. She was dragging a grey-clad body behind her.

"Somebody attacked?" the leader of the guards called across the room. The bounty hunter nodded and gestured toward the body disdainfully. Turning away from them, she moved down the corridor, still dragging the unlucky attacker.

"That's bounty hunters for ya," one of the guards commented. "I tell ya what, they scare me."

-

Reaching the door at the end of the corridor, Samus opened a tall compartment and dropped the bounty hunter's body inside. They'd find it eventually, but probably not soon enough. She didn't need very much time inside the base itself. Hopefully she wouldn't be forced to speak with anyone, because she didn't think she could hold her cover very long.

It was good to be in a bio suit again, even if it wasn't her own. This one was a bit too big for her, not to mention being a sickening green color. More importantly, it was woefully inadequate in terms of firepower and equipment. Still, it was big improvement, and now she didn't have to worry about being shot from behind and dying instantly.

Opening the door, Samus stepped through and discovered herself in a small military base. There were people everywhere in blue Galactic Council uniforms, fitting armor, polishing weapons, talking in low voices. A few bounty hunters were scattered among them.

Not letting herself slow down or glance around, Samus continued forward as if she knew where she was going. A few of the bounty hunters noticed her, but merely nodded. Quite fortunate, assuming that they knew whoever the woman was she had killed. Makeshift structures had been set up in the center of the camp, and it was toward these that Samus moved. They seemed like a good starting point, anyway.

Ducking beneath the low entrance, Samus found herself in a small, dark room. Thankfully it was empty, and she took the opportunity to slip into the shadows. Now the problem was getting information without seeming too suspicious. It wouldn't do to just ask any of the soldiers, if they even knew things that she didn't.

Moving further in, Samus swiftly stepped past several occupied doorways. So the leaders were here, apparently. Eventually finding a cubicle-like room that was empty, she slid inside. There was a small military desk in one corner, and Samus moved toward it, glancing over the papers.

The usual, overall. This didn't appear to be a very important person's office. Still, it would do for now. Until she found a computer terminal with a proper linking port, she didn't expect much anyway. One report on the table caught her interest, as it was obviously about the mission at hand. Picking it up, Samus pretended to be looking it over speculatively, trying to look as casual as possible in case someone walked in.

_To: Colonel Sander's Division  
__From:  
__Classification: High Propensity/Priority One  
__Ops Bin: CDLK / 47 / 7780 / RNK  
__The only objective is to acquire the subject. The only limitation is that the subject must still be alive. Every method is authorized. Use all force necessary to accomplish the objective. Consider the deadline to be within seventy two hours._

Odd. It seemed vaguely like a military brief, but one very improperly done. The From blank was mysteriously empty. While it was in the form of military messages, it read more like something covert... which perhaps it was. In any case, this confirmed that they were here for Tal... too late. Not that they could have gotten him anyway.

Setting the paper back down exactly as it had been before, Samus quickly looked for anything else of value and found nothing. Wherever the occupant of this office was, they would probably be back soon. This whole area was too cramped for her comfort anyway. Stepping out of the room, Samus quickly vacated the hastily constructed building.

Just as she reached the exit, a voice stopped her. It was speaking softly and not to her, but the words immediately caught her attention. Drifting into the shadows by the poorly lit doorway, she continued to listen.

"-getting suspicious. How long can we continue this charade?"

"Four hours by my estimate."

"Aren't we supposed to be out of here in twenty hours anyway?" a gruff voice asked

"That's the time, yes," a polished voice answered. "But in this situation it is higher priority to accomplish our object than to leave at the appointed time."

"The boss'll skin our hides if we don't get it," Gruff muttered.

"I can assure you that my men will stay as long as necessary," the original voice spoke up. "But what about all the others? I'm not their captain."

"We're paying them well," Polished told him reassuringly, "and the bounty huntershave too much at stake here to leave. There's no need to discuss this; the mission itself should be a higher priority."

"I'm just worried the Galactic Council will bring things down around our heads," Gruff interrupted. "Can the higher ups really stall things as long as they say they can? No one's gonna want to stay here if police forces are coming down on them soon and-"

"Even if they declare us terrorists, it won't matter," Captain interrupted. "My troops aren't loyal to the GC itself and the mercenaries could care less."

"I feel certain that Divel will be able to hold off any executive decision," Polished stated sharply, obviously annoyed. "Our concern is not about anything other than getting the specimen. We've lost track of it in any case, and about half the station is beyond our reach."

"We know that!" Captain snapped. "But what can we do about it?"

"I would propose that..."

As their conversation drifted into specific tactics, Samus stopped listening. She took a moment to collect her thoughts more completely, assimilating the new information that had been acquired. Most importantly, she now knew that these troops weren't actually Galactic Council forces. At least they weren't part of the main army in a strict sense.

They had been speaking of extremely high levels of bureaucracy. Which could only mean that they, and hence Project Darklight, had support all the way up the command chain. How much of the Galactic Council was corrupted and in on the operation? It appeared to be an extremely powerful faction, given that they could bring this many loyal soldiers to bear and hire even more.

Most suspicious was their mention of "Divel." Could it be the same Mr. Divel she was familiar with? That would fit the facts pretty well. Also, it didn't do anything to comfort her. Slowly this problem was expanding to be far more than personal. Shaking her head to clear it, Samus walked swiftly from the building.

Doing her best to look as though she knew what she was doing, Samus moved through the camp. There were GC forces lounging everywhere, and yet more bounty hunters. If this got violent it'd be a bloodbath, with friendly fire doing more damage than anything else. Best to get out before anyone had any idea she had entered.

Spying a multi-user computer terminal that appeared to be running by a generator, Samus moved to it as if she had been intending to go there all along. It wasn't the best of systems, but for the moment she would take anything she could get. There were a fair number of officials around the computer, some of them working with it. This part would be tricky, but pretty useful.

Reaching the computer, Samus folded her arms and waited, tapping one foot impatiently. Eventually one of the operators got the hint and moved out of the way with a gulp. Idly Samus wondered if the bounty hunter she'd killed had been particularly vicious. In any case, she now had access to a terminal. Finding the bio suit port, Samus plugged in her left arm and began downloading all files. Getting her other hand free, she began working with the terminal itself.

All they had on the computer was a lot of troop movements and orders and the like. Nothing useful to her, but used as evidence it would be damning. Combined with everything else, this would put certain individuals behind bars for life. Meanwhile, however...

Bringing up a map of the station itself, Samus discovered that it was modified with troop locations. Exactly what she needed. That file would be downloaded for future reference, but meanwhile there was another bit of important information she needed. Her ship had been docked in the twelfth hanger, and she'd need to reach it soon if she wanted to follow up on any of this.

Surrounded. The computer listed a great many troops around the area, and a fair number solely guarding her ship. Raising her eyebrows, Samus considered their motivations for that. Someone was after her especially... was that another issue entirely or did they know that she had some connection to Tal?

Not that it mattered. She'd have to break through the security in any case. That would require her real bio suit, hopefully with a new set of upgrades. For now, this would be enough. Waiting for the download to complete, Samus meaninglessly tapped around on the computer for a while and then left the terminal.

Breathing a sigh of relief as no one questioned her, Samus swiftly made her way out of the GC base. She was weaving through the troops when a group abruptly emerged from the doorway she had entered. Bounty hunters, too. They didn't appear to intend to leave the doorway for some time, standing around and apparently chatting. Not good.

Changing direction at a feasible point, Samus moved instead toward another exit. There had to be another way to get back to the area controlled by bounty hunters safely. Two massive blast doors signaled the entrance to a hanger. Blast! She was already heading in that direction, to switch would seem suspicious.

Using the bio suit's codes to get through the door, Samus moved into the hanger. This was the second... and probably the reason that the Galactic Council troops took over C8. Unlike almost everyone else, they had access to the docking bays of the ship. With the power being out, there was no central command to stop them from unloading as many troops as they might want. Just as Samus was trying to look busy, lights began flashing along the sides of the walls.

Another ship docking? Concealing her surprise, Samus went on about her non-work. Everyone in the hanger was in a vacuum suit, so they must just be docking ships the old fashioned way. For a few minutes air was rushed out of the chamber, Samus switched to her own supply, and then the room shivered.

Massive doors at one end of the room began sliding open. The movement was slow and in spurts, probably because they were using generator power. In any case, the docking ship flew into the hanger and settled on the ground.

From the corner of her eyes, Samus gave the vessel a good examination. Interesting... a military ship that was only legally used in times of war. Its presence here was highly illegal, at the least. None of the other people working in the vacuum of the hanger appeared to care or notice, so this must be common place. Sleek sides, an elongated shape, several heavy missile launchers under each wing... a good ship.

As the hatch near the bottom of the ship opened, Samus moved to a different location to get a better glimpse of those arriving. Quite a few people were watching them, so it wouldn't look all that suspicious. These people were apparently very important to the plan.

That settled it. She had to sneak into the ship somehow and see what information she could find. Surely there was something that would be useful there. Various types of people were leaving the ship. Most of them looked like military officers and bureaucrats. They weren't wearing vacuum suits, which meant they just assumed the hanger's air supply would be restored and no one else would dock. Probably true, but still arrogant.

After discussing a few things with people near the ship, the suits went to the airlock almost immediately. Workers moved to the ship shortly after, carrying small grey boxes from it toward one of the walls. Supplies of some sort, but that didn't matter to Samus very much at the moment. Her focus was solely on getting inside.

Carefully watching the workers unloaded the ship, Samus figured out a rough schedule of the timing of their trips. Watching it out of the corner of her eye, she moved through the hanger. Two tall, cylindrical generators sat humming on the floor, blue electricity crackling up them.

Pretty efficient models, Samus observed with slight admiration. These troops were certainly well equipped. Far better than ordinary soldiers, anyway. Plenty of people had the money to do such things... but where were they getting the supplies from? Surely they were stored in some other location and taken to the Bounty Hunter HQ as needed.

Continuing to walk at a fast clip, Samus moved behind a large box and was momentarily eclipsed from view. The next moment she jerked herself into a crevice between boxes. Sliding between two more and moving to the edge of a row, she glanced out at the room. There appeared to be relatively few workers between her and the generators. Good.

Sliding like a shadow from one hiding point to another, Samus worked her way nearer the generators. If there weren't so many things lying around here the task would have been completely impossible. As it was, she managed to get very near the generators without being seen by any of the workers.

Waiting until she got an opening, Samus dove from her hiding spot. She somersaulted over the floor and between the two generators. They were too close together for comfort, but she crouched low. Between the bulk of the generators themselves and the glow created by their energy, she was practically invisible.

Looking down at the floor, Samus found the wires connecting generators to what they powered. These two basically worked for the entire hanger and the surrounding area. There was a mess of black wires that branched into different directions, but Samus methodically worked her way through them.

Eventually finding the cord that powered the lights, Samus traced it back to its main power outlet. It was possible for such things to become loose, though on units like this it would never happen. At least, it wouldn't happen normally.

All light abruptly vanished from the room, plunging it into total darkness. There were assorted screams and curses, and a broad variety of noises as people banged into various objects in the darkness. In the confusion Samus slipped over the floor using infrared vision and easily stepped up the walkway into the docked ship.

Glancing around inside and searching for electrical signals, Samus practically dove for the cockpit. It wouldn't be long before someone had the sense to use a battery-powered light to reconnect the generator. They wouldn't be stupid enough to think it had just magically come loose on its own. From this point forward her time was limited.

Bringing the screen online, Samus quickly glanced over it, searching for something of value. She was really here only on intuition, anyway. But surely a ship like this would have something worth stealing- ah.

Their set of preprogrammed coordinates and maps of the surrounding area were all loaded. Downloading them into her suit, Samus looked over the map with her naked eye. This map had the former locations of Stations Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald all marked... promising indeed. Most recently the station had accessed the code for Bounty Hunter Headquarters, but before that...

Another station. One she'd never heard of before. It was resting in the sensor shadow of a rocky planet not far from this station. Looking through the ship's past records, however, Samus discovered that its location was slowly changing. A drifting station, then. Probably not randomly drifting, either; most likely it shifted location to throw off anyone looking for it. Without the proper data, reaching it would be tough, even if you knew about it.

Lights flickered back on, and Samus winced. While this information was important, there might be other things on the computer as well. Narrowing her eyes, she redoubled her efforts on the computer.

One of the workers glanced around the corner through the ship suspiciously. He leaned into the cockpit room and discovered all as it should be. The room was empty, the screen was off, the ship was still on standby mode. Nodding and grunting, he moved back out of the ship to carry another box.

Letting go of her magnetic hold on the wall above the door, Samus dropped to the floor soundlessly. This was it, then. At least she had the coordinates she needed. If she could get out with this bio suit in good enough condition to transfer the information to her normal suit, her mission would be accomplished.

The real problem was getting out. While she would normally be tempted to rush out shooting, she really didn't want to try to get away in this bio suit. Not enough firepower to make her way through the entire GC camp and whatever bounty hunters happened to be nearby. Getting from here to the safe zone was no cakewalk, either.

All she needed was a few minutes of safety. If she escaped the base itself, it didn't matter if they knew she had been here. She'd cleaned the logs of her access and data downloading, but they'd probably piece together that someone had been inside pretty quickly.

Moving to the back of the ship, Samus scanned the area around her for any life forms. Bringing out a laser knife, which was annoyingly a far less intense version than her own, Samus began cutting her way through the thick ship hull. Eventually she made a circle large enough for her to get through easily.

Activating one magnet boot, Samus locked it onto the circle of the ship hull and pulled it into the ship. Setting it down beside the hole, she slipped down through the hole. Abruptly exposed in the middle of the hanger, Samus rolled behind one of the legs of the ship, which was poor cover. No one yelled yet.

Suddenly needing to be somewhere else quite soon, Samus began walking briskly toward the exit. When anyone tried to make eye contact with her she did her best to seem extremely focused and busy. She had almost reached the airlock exit when abruptly someone yelled.

Damn. That hadn't worked well. Behind her, the entire area was devolving into complete chaos. There were people yelling about an intruder, and a great many men rushing about with guns. They were too late to stop Samus from entering the airlock, but rushed in her direction, yelling and shooting a few times. Not good at all.

Stepping out of the airlock at the other side, Samus began moving at the fastest reasonable pace through the camp. It was still relatively peaceful. Clenching her fists, Samus brought both of her arm cannons online and began charging them. The peace was going to be fleeting indeed.


	18. Perseverance

Though I apologize for the delay in the update, it doesn't seem that it mattered greatly.

-

Chapter 18: Perseverance

Yawning, the guard glanced down the empty corridor one more time. The other bounty hunters nearby all continued to watch as well. Being bored, he glanced over their position and realized they were carefully placed so that no one explosive could damage too many of them at once. Smart, as always. It wouldn't be easy to take this door.

Still, though, none of it took any of _his_ effort. All he had to do was obey orders and then sit around the corridor half the day. For all the intelligence displayed by the people setting up this safe zone, he was still bored. And that was how most of the galaxy was... bored with safety. He wasn't even that bored and he was already wishing that someone would come wildly shooting, just so they could kill something.

A clanking noise became quite clear, some way down the corridor. Immediately all the bounty hunters were on alert, switching through vision modes. Some of them looked toward the source of the noise, but equal numbers looked elsewhere to check for sneak attacks. The clanking continued steadily. There was a long moment of tension that continued to stretch...

Samus Aran emerged from a side path far down the corridor. Slowly she moved toward them, her walk halting and slow. Oddly, she was wearing a sickly green bio suit that the guard had never seen before. The helmet had been removed, however, and he recognized her face almost instantly. Something was obviously up.

The right shoulder of her bio suit had been blown away. Beneath it the light grey surface of her full body suit appeared to be untouched, but there were cracks all along the suit's armor. At her side in one hand the helmet hung, a massive crack through its visor. Both of her legs appeared to be heavily damaged, but one had a grinding gear that made it jerk during walking and produced the clanking. She was holding her left arm at her side as if it was injured.

"What happened to you?" the leader of the post asked. Samus glanced up at them, eyes half lidded but completely alert through her weariness.

"GC forces," she explained, stopping a safe distance from the door. "I was spying on them and things didn't go to well near the end. Will you guys let me through?"

"I don't suppose you really need identification," the squad captain shrugged, "we know who you are. Approach."

Doing so slowly, Samus got to the group without wincing and then dropped to one knee. Immediately several of the bounty hunters expanded to a new formation. One bent down beside her, concerned, and the others covered them for any attack. Mentally Samus cursed the inferior bio suit that was so easily damaged. It'd been drained of power almost immediately, too.

"There are quarters nearby," the bounty hunter explained to her in a low tone. "Just go down the corridor, past the bar and then to the right. You can take any room that's not locked as long as you tell the commander everything you discovered first."

"Right," Samus agreed with a slight nod. Commander? There was someone in charge of all these bounty hunters as well? In any case, she had no intention of telling anyone what she had discovered. Beyond this point, it was her mission alone. She didn't feel particularly loyal to either side of the conflict, but she knew she was against whoever was responsible for all this. For all the good intentions of the people in charge of this safe zone, they were only out for themselves.

Struggling to her feet, Samus continued into the safe area. Many, many strange looks were cast her direction by the bounty hunters she passed. Most of them had the sense to look away immediately, but she glared away a few of the more obnoxious ones. Of first importance was reaching Bartholomew.

She limped into his repair shop eight minutes later. He was polishing something behind the counter without looking around the room. The instant she entered every eye in the room was on her. Getting up, Bartholomew moved to help her into the back room without a single word. Behind him he locked and soundproofed the door.

"What the hell did you do to that sorry piece of crap?" he asked, the instant the door sealed. Moving to a wall, Samus leaned back against it. She'd avoided much physical damage to herself, but there would be a few bruises from the battle.

"I needed some info," Samus answered him, honestly but briefly. "It was in a GC troop base. Getting in was easy, getting out got a bit messy."

"Ah. Your suit is done."

"Good." A slight smile appeared on Samus's face as she pulled the armor off her. At least it was still functioning enough to unfuse itself properly. Turning to the unit, she found the central processor and removed it, immediately slipping it into one of her pockets. That, she needed to transfer to her real suit. "Consider it yours," Samus vaguely waved toward the suit, "though I don't know what it's worth."

"Scrap metal, probably," Bartholomew appraised swiftly. He was moving toward the back end of the room, past mountains of mechanical parts and partially finished bio suits. Standing against one wall was Samus' bio suit, gleaming orange in the room's light. He'd even polished it, then. Though Samus generally appreciated her bio suit, she was going to do so far more after having her memory refreshed on what an inferior suit felt like.

"That's better," Samus said, stepped to her bio suit and beginning to connect its hard drive with the other suit's. "What'd you add?"

"Slight armor upgrades. Some nasty chemical missiles. Modified speakers that can produce 200 decibels of sound. There are a few new poisons for the needle now. Improved environmental safety in the areas of gases and heat. A personal cloaking device. Computer lock pick. An interesting shock weapon. Improved chemical stores if you want to go the freeze route. I think that's pretty much it." Bartholomew scratched the back of his head, searching for anything to add to his list.

"That should do," Samus responded. "Thanks. How much money did you take?"

"Somewhere from 10,000 to 12,000. Depends on how much trouble other people cause because I took their stuff. I'll deduct whatever the scrap metal you gave me's worth."

"That's generous of you."

Bartholomew merely grunted in response, folding his massive arms and leaning back against a wall. Finishing the information transfer, Samus unhooked both processors and then got inside her suit. It came online and she sighed with relief. Almost like being home again. If she had ever actually had a home, that is.

"Do I really want to know what you'll be doing?" Bartholomew asked her, just before she reached the door. She glanced back at him through her visor emotionlessly.

"Probably not. I'll recuperate here today, and tomorrow I'm gone."

"Well, the best of luck to ya."

Waving goodbye absentmindedly, Samus left the room. The best of luck, eh? That was probably the best she could hope for. Compared to everything she typically had to face, someone willing to just be helpful was a wonderful relief. Those simple words, not even considering the bio suit, but Bartholomew in a different class.

Not many people in the universe were like that. Most of them were like Shilo, or Mr. Divel, or the thousands of corrupted persons who would never be caught. Tal had been one of the people against the grain, and now he was dead. Samus's eyes narrowed dangerously. His passing would signal the beginning of the end for Project Darklight.

-

_Unstoppably he fell back through the air, falling toward the death that awaited him. Too late to jump, to use his wings, Tal seemed almost to drift toward the green acid below. Across the room, Samus felt her eyes widen and her mouth go slack, even as another bolt of plasma shot out of her gun and dropped an opponent._

_There was nothing she could do. For a terrible moment she realized that she had no skill, no technology, no ability that could stop him. He was dying and there was nothing that she could do. Everything continued to move sluggishly, and he turned toward her with that slow, sad smile..._

With a violent jolt Samus jerked awake. Not this. She did not need a recurring dream to continue haunting her. His smile already haunted her enough...

Putting both hands over her face, Samus just sat in bed for a moment, trying to clear her mind of the dream's images. She had to put this behind her. The past could destroy you or it could fuel you, and she couldn't afford to be destroyed by it. But that didn't make it hurt any less, be any better.

But she could deal with pain, couldn't she? Bitterly Samus pushed her legs over the side of her bed and stood up sleepily. It haunted her that she would soon adapt, get over the issue of his death. No matter what happened, she would always adapt. She didn't need him to go on... but she _wanted_ him to be alive.

Her life was a mass of pain, like skin that had scarred so endlessly that new scars could not be seen. For a brief moment it would remain fresh, but then it would fade away like all the others. She didn't want it to fade away, but another part of her did, wanted to keep going. It wasn't like Tal would have wanted her to waste away in the past. Not while there was a future to look to. Still at times, in the painlessness, Samus had to wonder what she was becoming.

Shaking herself, Samus refocused on her objective. All the preparation had been taken care of. Today was the last day she remained on this station, and then it was time to end this mess. She had to fix everything here before she could go back to her own life.

For one of the few times her life, Samus took a hot shower. Normally she used cold water to keep herself completely alert, but today she was more interested in being completely relaxed. It might be a long time before she got an opportunity to rest again. Drying off and replacing her newly washed full body suit, Samus narrowed her eyes. Time to go.

She pulled on the mechanical gloves, the boots, latched the rest of the armor, pulled on the helmet, remained perfectly still as all of it fused together into a lethal fighting machine. A slight smile flickered across her face as the system came online. Better. Much better. The instant she had full movement, the smile vanished. Now.

Leaving the confines of her temporary quarters, Samus strode down the hallway. Almost immediately she found herself intercepted. Another bounty hunter, out of his bio suit, was leaning against one edge of the door she wanted to go through. She didn't really remember him; he was just average in skill, had slick blond hair, a thin goatee. It didn't matter who he was... he was in the way.

"Good morning, Samus."

"This is not a good time," she almost growled, eyes dangerously narrow. Most people had the sense to stay away from her in such a mood. Most.

"Came too late," the other bounty hunter muttered. "I had heard you were actually walking around in normal clothes. You use such a bulky bio suit; I always wondered what you looked like under-" A smoking hole appeared in his chest, and he dropped to the ground. Samus stepped over his body and continued on. Nothing was going to get in her way now.


	19. First of the Last

I'm sorry that one reviewer finds with story boring without Tal. Samus is a character that I enjoyed writing very highly, and I feel she could carry a story on her own. This has been entire written, so the plot will not be changed to accomodate readers, but... please stick around. I think you will find it is worth it to continue reading.

And yes, the last chapter demonstrates a good reason not to mess with Samus.   
-

Chapter 19: First of the Last

Holding back by the doorway, Samus continued to monitor the troop status around the hanger. Most of them were overall guarding the area of C12, but there were a fair number inside the hanger as well. All of them were clustered around her ship. That by itself changed her emotions to a cross between curious and nervous. Did whoever controlled these corrupt GC troops have it out for her?

Breaking through the surrounding layer of soldiers had been easy. She hadn't set off any alarms and hadn't even had to kill any of them. Up to this point she was perfect. Unfortunately, she couldn't just sneak past these guys.

Worse, there appeared to be one bounty hunter guarding the ship as well. That made things considerably more difficult. Presumably there was only one... there could be others using cloaking equipment just as she was. Opening the door before her manually to just a crack, Samus flipped up her visor to avoid a scrambling cloaker and glanced into the area.

Troops were positioned around her ship, and her ship alone. They appeared to be facing outward in every direction. From what she could see, there was still only one bounty hunter, sitting roughly near the middle and keeping watch. Good.

Activating full cloaking technology, Samus slipped through the crack in the door. It was interesting stuff indeed. As much as she understood it, the suit bent light around her, making her completely invisible to the common eye. Even if someone had superhuman vision, the best they might be able to detect would be a slight disturbance in their surroundings.

Unfortunately, this also left her completely blind. That would have been a serious drawback, except for infrared mode. Gauging where she was by heat, Samus walked directly into the center of the chamber, hiding in plain sight. Walking while unable to see was only minorly difficult... it had been a few years since she'd been forced to do such a thing.

Raising both gun arms, Samus began charging them to maximum power. The energy use would be noticed rather quickly, but her element of surprise was already well in place. Waiting until the bounty hunter suddenly jolted in surprise, Samus fired both cannons forward into the mass of troops.

There was no recoil from the energy weapons, but Samus hurled herself backward anyway, dropping the cloak. Several charged shots crashed into the ground where she had been formerly. Breaking into a run to her right, Samus glanced over the group with real eyes.

Many of them now littered the floor, taken out by her massive shots. None of them appeared to have struck the ship, which was as she had planned it. The tricky part would be taking all of them out quickly enough to avoid backup, but carefully enough to avoid damaging her ship. At the moment the question was if she had killed the bounty hunter.

Two rockets flew through the air toward her the next instant, answering Samus' question. Blasting both out of the sky, Samus fired back toward the bounty hunter. Her aim was jostled considerably because she had to jerk back to avoid further gunfire. Those troops were going to be a serious annoyance...

Breaking into a run for the door, Samus decided to forgo shooting for the moment. Too much gunfire to effectively dodge. Reaching the wall, Samus ran up the side a short distance before activating magnetic boots. She continued to run up the side of the wall until she reached the top of the hanger.

Moving to the ceiling, Samus glanced down at the troops, still firing at her. They were terrible shots, if they couldn't even get close while she was running in magnetic boots. Then the bounty hunter started firing as well, forcing Samus to use a bit more fancy footwork. She fired back for good measure, though the bounty hunter dodged those attacks as well.

Abruptly Samus put on a burst of her jet pack, shooting across the ceiling and reattaching to it just above the troops. They needed a moment to retrain their guns to fire on her... unfortunately for them, Samus didn't. Plasma rained down upon the troops, decimating most of them. Almost done, then.

Several rockets flew up toward Samus, more than she could shoot down. Targeting the floor with her grappling hook, Samus braced herself as she was jerked away from the ceiling and hurtled toward the ground at a startling rate. The missiles crashed into the ceiling above her, breaking loose major portions of it.

Bringing her feet to the ground before she landed, Samus retracted the grappling hook while swiping the legs out from under the bounty hunter. Firing a short concussive burst, Samus sent her opponent flying across the room. Not a lot of damage, but it would buy time.

Realizing that chunks of the ceiling were tumbling through the air toward her spaceship, Samus devoted a few seconds to blowing them out of the sky, or at least off course. Couldn't have the ship being damaged. She barely rolled away the next moment as a massive burst of plasma destroyed the ground where she had stood.

Surprisingly, the stream of fire followed her rather quickly, striking her and knocking her out of ball form. The impact sent her sprawling back on the floor, where several of the nearer troops descended upon her. Laser blades hummed at the edges of their rifles.

Well... ow. They must have managed to set up a machine gun with a shifting turret. Looking over the damage reports, Samus decided they weren't as bad as she had thought and mostly to armor anyway. Still, that had to be taken care of. Like the soldiers aiming to cut her while she lay prone on the floor.

Throwing herself to her back, Samus kicked away the nearest two then flipped to her feet. With no real time to fire on the remaining others, she basically just smacked them upside the head with the guns surrounding her hands. Crude but workable.

Another stream of plasma fire flew in her direction, missing but moving across the floor toward her. So they had fired up the machine gun again, and didn't seem to care if they shot their soldiers while missing her. But no matter. This time she was ready for it. Last time she had rolled, it had felt superior to her prior rolling system before. Perhaps...

The gunner manning the turret continued to fire, drawing closer to the target. Abruptly the bounty hunter rolled to the side. Gaping, the gunner tried to sweep his line of fire after her. She had curled into a ball, and her bio suit appeared to be created to make her roughly spherical. Now she was rolling across the ground toward them at a fair rate, zig-zagging and avoiding being hit by the machine gun fire.

She passed out of his line of sight, and the gunner had a moment to wonder how she had gotten past him. Then the mounted gun before him was blown away. He had time to jerk his head around and see Samus, out of her ball form, having fired backward. By that point it was too late.

Flipping to his feet, the bounty hunter swiftly skipped through his bio suit's vision modes. There was plenty of dying life around the room, and one high level of heat. Focusing there, he discovered Samus standing amid a group of freshly smoking bodies. Then it was finally between the two of them.

Firing full throttle with his left hand, the bounty hunter forced Samus to move completely to dodging. Perfect. Samus back flipped away, sprang off the ground with both hands and landed, skidding a short distance away. Meanwhile, she took the time to get her first real look at her opponent.

Whoever he was, he was wearing a light blue bio suit. It looked to be a very recent model, almost as good as the one she had used before these most recent modifications. While it was impossible to tell another bounty hunter's skill, you could generally get a good idea by the bio suit they wore. This wasn't a good sign.

Before she could consider how to fight back, Samus realized that he had charged up a major attack of his own. Abruptly swinging his right arm, he launched a laser that blasted into the opposite wall and quickly swept to the left, aiming to slice her in half. It probably couldn't, but still, she didn't want to get hit by light that intense.

Just before the laser reached her, Samus threw herself back, bending over backward to touch the ground and barely evading the attack. Activating magnetic energy in her gun arm, Samus pulled both legs into the air and pulled an internal trigger. Plasma blew from the guns concealed in the soles of her feet, slamming the opposing bounty hunter into the opposite wall.

From the dust a wave of energy rained forward. Probably a spreadfire cannon, Samus considered as she jumped over the many bolts slamming into the hanger wall behind her. This place was going to come down around them if their fight lasted much longer. Activating her jet pack, Samus avoided falling back into the wave of attacks.

Suspending in midair, Samus saw the other bounty hunter bursting up toward her the very next moment. A slight smile appeared on her face a moment before being replaced with a completely serious expression. So he was inexperienced and just happened to own a high tech suit. That took some off her mind.

Samus' boot smashed directly into his helmet, sending him hurtling backward and slamming into the floor. His visor had several large cracks running across it, and his helmet registered severe damage. Follow up shots were fired, but he managed to roll backward away from them.

Planting his back to the wall, the bounty hunter opened fire with everything he had. The metal around his arms shifted, new energy cannons emerging from hidden locations and firing. Hot plasma flooded from his main cannons. He bent both knees slightly, revealing new openings that sent rockets flying into the fray as well. His hands were both burning hot from his cannons overheating, but he continued firing everything he had. Unless he managed to take her out now, she'd destroy him.

Eventually he could do no more; his ammunition supply was depleted and his energy stores drained. Both of his hand cannons were melted, probably taken out of commission fully by such strain on them. One side of the hanger before him was no more than slag, nothing stirred within it. Then he'd managed it...

An orange arm entered his vision the next instant, its gun loudly clicking against his visor in the silence. One shot rang out, and then the blue bio suit fell to the ground lifelessly. Turning from him, Samus swept her gaze around the hanger, looking for any other adversaries. There appeared to be none.

Blowing imaginary smoke off of one energy cannon, Samus let herself smile slightly. Subtlety? What was that?

Fortunately, her ship had been far enough across the hanger that the other bounty hunter's mad attacked hadn't really damaged it. Apparently the generators set up here were still working as well, which meant there was power to the computers at the docking bay. And computers could be hacked.

Opening her ship's docking ramp from afar, Samus reached it just as it tapped to the ground. Striding up the ramp, she closed it behind her with another command and moved to the cockpit. Good to be back here again. This ship was more her home than anywhere else in the galaxy.

Linking to her computer, Samus began uploading her bio suit's new contents with one arm. At the same time she shifted the gun away from her other arm, leaving her hand free to use the controls. She set up a program to trick the docking bay into briefly entering an emergency release and then sat back and waited for both operations.

When the download had finished, Samus quickly found the new floating station that now appeared on her map. That was the only real lead she had to go on, but Samus had the feeling that she was going to get some answers there. As the doors opened and a vacuum rushed into the hanger, Samus guided her ship out of the station, ignoring the flashing warning lights. None of this would matter in a second.

Whoever was on that station was going to get a little visit.


	20. Lethal Filler

Keep in mind that the acid that Tal fell into was not your mundane, run of the mill acid. As explained by the scientist some chapters earlier, it was some pretty vicious stuff that operates on a very different level than the acid that Tal could spit.

Regarding one comment: I feel certain that compliment would be more appreciated if I had ever read either of those stories.

This chapter marks part of a diversion that does not focus upon Samus, for good or for ill, though it does impact the story to a severe degree. I've received varied comments about it, but I'd be curious as to the general opinion. Regardless, there isn't a great deal of it.

Chapter 20: Lethal Filler

His fingers slowly moved over the cool metal, feeling its contours and crevices. Turning the object over in his hands, he examined it as if he was seeing it for the first time in his life, as if he hadn't worn it every day for the past four years. Sweeping lines formed the symbol of the Galactic Council, a triangular star designed to represent unity. The blue letter GC were stamped in the center, in old roman-style letters.

Sighing heavily, the man reattached the identification to the lapel of his suit. While he did so, he looked over himself, invoking another soul-weary sigh. This suit... he'd been wearing it for three days straight. A formal grey piece, suitable for his position but still slightly casual. That was how he had campaigned, after all: as a casual guy who could have lived next door.

What did it mean? What did any of it mean? Now his suit was rumpled, his eyes were nearly closed from lack of sleep, his feet ached in his shoes, his voice rasped slightly from talking. Though his hair had once been neatly combed, it was now less than so, despite the best efforts of his aides.

It wasn't just that, either. Even in a broader sense, he was slowly going downhill. Muscle had faded from his sedentary lifestyle; he was beginning to get softer around the middle; his hair was thinning out. Modern technology ensured that his face would remain smooth, but he knew that a poor man would have begun to develop wrinkles. These days when he moved there was occasionally a twinge of pain.

He was dying. Slowly and surely. Oh, he knew the process would take years, he knew that he probably still had twenty years of his life remaining. People told him his eyes were still bright and clear, his smile still warm. But how rarely did he smile any more.

Putting his face between his hands, he glanced between his fingers. They were all dying. Some of them didn't know it. Some of them denied it. True, many of them were still young, still filled with vitality, still able to work constantly. But they were dying, as surely as all the others. Maybe not even in body, but in soul. He barely even could tell them apart any more. All just suits that had grown blind and corrupted.

That was what all of this felt like... an aging body. All of the galactic organization was a gigantic being, lumbering along, unaware that it was being eaten away from within. Though it might still appear mighty, and might be able to crush its opposition, it was still losing what it once was. Disease was rapidly spreading throughout it.

And though he wished to deny it, wanted with all his heart for it not to be true, the corruption had probably spread here, to the mind of the beast, to the Galactic Council. He had poured his life into the organization, and this was his second term on the prestigious Council itself. Just one more year... one more year then he might want to retire.

Admitting that all of this was becoming corrupted hurt. But he didn't really feel that hurt anymore, just a dull ache that was another sign that he was getting older. In spirit if not in body. More than anything else, he was just tired. Tired of corruption. Tired of manipulation. Tired of cover ups. And now this...

"Stevenson!"

The voice jolted him alert. One of his fellow council members, sitting in the seat next to him, gave him a sharp jab with a foot. Saying his name would have been enough... but now he was awake enough to comprehend the question that was coming his way.

"-wondering as to the potential for an official vote of no confidence?"

"Such is unlikely," Mr. Stevenson answered, voice crisp. These things would likely be eventually televised, or portions of them could be used as statements. At the very least he had to put up a false front to the others. They couldn't know how weak he was. "At the moment the Assembly is split between almost evenly 49 liberal and 50 conservative. However, this issue is mixing party lines."

"What are the chances that they could be convinced to take partial action," another council member asked, to the floor, "action that would require only an Assembly majority?"

Immediately Mr. Stevenson was involved with the discussion again, mind latching onto each portion of what was being said. Shaking off the gloom surrounding him, he recalled the facts of the situation. Someone had managed to send Galactic Council troops without operation, and had attacked the Bounty Hunter Headquarters. Not a smart move, so it was indubitably motivated by something else.

Questions were being asked all across the galaxy, and they were still hiding behind a shield of not commenting on the situation. This session had been going for three days, members of the Council drifting in and out as they had to sleep or eat. All of them were here now, however, because it was possible it would come to a vote.

A side door opened, and all eyes in the chamber turned toward it. One man in a plain black suit, an aide, no doubt, entered the chamber and moved into the circle of grim looking politicians. Ah, this one... he was more than just an aide, he was their liaison to the Assembly, and a source of quite a bit of information.

"Well?" the Council Head asked. With a slight bow, the man began.

"Proceedings were held up because the order of the day was continually drawn away toward another bill. Six attempts were made toward two separate bills, 23 and 41, but all of them failed. This absorbed some time, and then a motion was made to suspend the order of the day and move to the issue on the table- the situation at Bounty Hunter HQ.

"It appeared that the motion would pass until it was revealed that a piece of tax legislation was also pending. The initial motion barely failed, and a motion to consider the tax legislation was entertained and passed. After several speeches, the matter dissolved into internal politics.

"Resolution looks to be fairly near, and the voting members of the Assembly are mostly locked. At the moment the Assembly is undergoing a minor filibuster. Meanwhile, an amendment to the order of the day has shifted the issue of the incident down further. There will be no movements made within four hours."

"Thank you, you may go." Almost before he was out of the door, the Council Head was glancing down the circle of council members, looking each in the eye. Mr. Stevenson looked back, face not betraying his emotions. Had they already reached the Head? Was he being bribed, or had he been a part of their plans from the beginning?

"I suggest that we form a committee of select Assembly statesmen to consider the issue separately," one member suggested. "Perhaps then the internal politics can be avoided."

So he was definitely one of them. Anything sent to committee, particularly a bipartisan committee chosen by someone who was a part of the corruption, would not see the light of day for over a week. That would be essentially suicide for any opportunity to truly change the situation. Was that what they wanted? Did they have some vested interest in keeping this entire situation a complete mess?

"Perhaps a committee is not the best forum for such discussion," Mr. Stevenson suggested. "In this case, greater efficiency of speed would be desired, and I would suggest-"

"Yet the idea is a good one," someone else interrupted. Glancing toward him, Mr. Stevenson identified another member of the corruption, or at least someone they could afford to pay off. "A committee would avoid squandering time while the Assembly filibusters bills about completely irrelevant legislation. The executive branch has to take action to get around all of this unfortunate wasted time!"

He continued speaking, but none of the words reached Mr. Stevenson's ears. How many of them were there? At least three of the nine council members were a part of this specific corruption. All but himself and possibly two others were corrupted in some way. But how many was he going against? Four? Five?

The issue was coming to a vote. Sighing heavily, Mr. Stevenson tapped the second button on his own control panel, signaling that he was against the motion. Now was the time to see how the situation truly stood. How shaky was the ground beneath his feet?

"All votes have been received," the Council Head announced, glancing down at the panel before him. All the others could see the results as well as he could, but it was bureaucratic procedure for him to declare it none the less. "The final vote is seven - two in favor of moving the issue to committee."

Was it that hopeless already? Mr. Stevenson sighed, and moved a hand to his head, closing his eyes to the world. He didn't want to try anymore, didn't want to fight them. It was no use. No matter where he would go in the government, there would be corruption. Who was controlling everything this time? In the end, those with the money and connections always ended up pulling the strings. Democracy... feh.

"Can I speak with you privately?" Glancing up, Mr. Stevenson saw another council member beside his portion of the circular structure, leaning close to him. Once they had been friends... but what did friendship mean in these days? Getting out of his chair wearily, Mr. Stevenson moved with him out into the hallway.

"I've known you for a long time," the other council member said slowly, as if bringing his thoughts together. "What are you doing, Gogo? Why are you working against progress?"

"Progress?" he asked heavily. "Do you call this progress?"

"The rest of us are working together toward a better future, Gogo, and you're opposing us every step of the way. Why?"

For a long moment Mr. Stevenson was silent, leaning against the cold metal wall. He opened his eyes just slightly to look at the other man standing in the corridor with him and sighed heavily. "A better future for who?" he asked softly. "For the galaxy or for you?"

In the chamber, the council members continued glancing at one another, none of them speaking. There was no point in speaking any further, not with only six of them here. Two were still talking in the hallway, and another had briefly excused himself. The silence had continued to stretch.

"When we return to the floor," the Head told the others softly, eyes watching the door, "I will suggest that we unofficially adjourn for fifteen minutes. The two of you, argue against doing this for some time and eventually relent. After the break, we will work on preparing a press statement. This should consume another hour."

"The plan is sufficient." A new voice entered the conversation, and all of the members of the Council stiffened in their seats. Perfectly modulated steps clicked against the metal floor as a new person entered the chamber from another door in the far corner of the room. All eyes rested on him fearfully.

Looking as immaculately perfect as always, Mr. Divel glanced around the chamber silently.

"I will require your assistance momentarily," he told them quietly and commandingly. "Once the subject has been acquired, I must have everything covered up for at least seven days. That will be all that is necessary. Do you think this will be possible?"

"We almost entirely control the Council," the Head told him, voice obviously deferential. "Seven of us can be counted on to support these initiatives for the duration. Only two oppose us. One has ties to a crime lord opposing us; he has too little power to stop us and we can reveal his illegal actions if it becomes necessary to discredit him. The only other opposition is a tired old man. I anticipate no problems."

"Very well," Mr. Divel answered, as if he would have been disappointed with anything less. "I will be examining our operations myself. Gentlemen... see that it is done."

Tapping her fingers on the armrest, Samus continued observing her progress. Her gaze flickered between the front of the ship, the radar and her sensor reports. Nothing yet, but she knew that she would be soon approaching the station. Assuming it was a highly sensory station with illegal modifications, its sensors would be just beyond hers. If it had shifted at the same rate since she last saw its position...

For the sake of safety, Samus shifted into cloaked mode and powered down the ship almost completely. Her anti-matter drive dropped to the lowest level necessary, just in case they had developed something to detect that as well. Remaining still in her chair, Samus began working on her ship's identification codes.

The largest problem would be getting onto the station. There was need for momentary stealth, though she had no intention of making this a quiet visit. Already she was pressing her luck by trying to sneak up to them. Perhaps it would be best to enter the station in the sensor shadow of another ship, and then assume that enough bounty hunters would be on the station that her ship would go unnoticed.

Of course, they probably would be checking identification. Pulling up the codes she had stolen from the previous ship she had been on, she changed a single digit and hoped that it didn't match the identification of any other ship. Best to change the computer's logs so that it registered having docked at the Bounty Hunter Headquarters than then come here on autopilot.

Deleting the former log, Samus quickly found the temp file and the cookies that indicated she had made modifications and destroyed them as well. Best to run a full memory clean so they couldn't pick up any traces and then reboot. It wouldn't take too long.

Finishing the operations, Samus shut down the computer and slowly got up from her chair. She was feeling strangely sluggish at the moment. That usually happened whenever she was about to go into a situation she knew would be dangerous. It would wear off by the time she had to act.

Drifting back through her ship, Samus moved into her own room. Funny. She hadn't actually used the bed in quite a while. With a bio suit such wasn't very necessary. But whatever. There was nothing to do until she reached the station, so she might as well. Falling backward onto the bed, Samus remained staring at the ceiling for a very long time.


	21. Zeniths

For whatever it may be worth, thank you for the thorough reviewing of previous chapters, Aran'sApprentice-Meahow.

Referring to it as a "matter of time" is an apt description. However, the story has another arc before resolving itself.

To answer the question regarding biology: Tal's armor skirts the line between dead and living. It is continually regrown, in a manner very similar to bone, but contains no nerves or blood vessels. Where the exoskeleton connects to flesh there is living tissue much closer to human flesh, but this occurs solely within his body (which has been severely modified to accommodate said exoskeleton).

* * *

Chapter 21: Zeniths

A low tone woke her up, though she didn't remember falling asleep. Instantly alert, Samus bounded to the cockpit and discovered she was nearing the station. Already it was looming ahead of her. As she had expected, it was simply floating in the middle of nowhere, where no ship had any reason to go. Soon it would someplace completely different but probably just as empty.

Bringing the ship to a halt, Samus waited for another ship to approach. If she was really going to try the sensor shadow trick, she'd have to wait for something big. There were actually a number of smaller ships coming and going from the station, but it couldn't hurt to be cautious.

None of the ships noticed her, given the fact that an unmoving cloaked ship was almost impossible to detect. Eventually a cargo ship lumbered forward, sending the smaller ships scurrying out of the way as it moved to dock with the hanger doors. Perfect. Sliding down and directly beneath the massive ship, Samus moved just behind it.

Staying in a sensor shadow as always tricky. There were things that could identify exactly where a sensor shadow was... but they would make you incredibly obvious. That made it more of a guessing game, where you had to feel your way through. She'd done this quite a few times, and was pretty confident she could drifted just beneath and behind the primary bulk of the cargo ship and remain in its sensor shadow.

While the ship itself blocked off all view of her own vessel from the hanger, Samus turned off the cloak. Nothing shot at her or started making noise, so she considered it success. When the cargo ship had docked completely, filling the majority of the entrance to the hanger, Samus slipped around it, flying sideways to enter the slot remaining before the docking bay doors closed.

Settling down in the hanger as if she belonged there, Samus turned ship security on to maximum and moved from the ship. Still no one shooting at her. Most people seemed completely involved with loading the massive cargo ship, so they didn't really even look at her. She wasn't going to complain.

Exiting her ship and leaving the room, Samus wandered while pretending to know where she was going. Eventually stumbling across an elevator, she entered and indicated she wanted to go to the opposite side of the station. The trip was somewhat long and annoying, as the elevator kept stopping when new people wanted to get on, but she just stood in the back and waited until they left.

Getting off at the opposite side of the station, safely away from her ship, Samus decided it was time to start. Where to do it, though? As much as she wanted to charge into the situation, it was more important to actually accomplish something. Moving to a computer, Samus messed with the controls and discovered that a massive central portion of the station had no information and was forbidden from public access... which meant she probably wanted to go there.

Walking to the doors to the center levels of the station, Samus discovered that the crowd around her had thinned and vanished. Apparently even people on a station like this, which was probably illegal, didn't go here. Whatever was inside was probably important.

Tapping at the computer, Samus discovered that its lock was sophisticated enough she couldn't hack through it. Interesting. That didn't happen very often. But there were other methods of opening doors.

Stepping back, Samus fired a couple of missiles at the door. It broke through it, but just barely... probably an extremely tough door. They really didn't want people inside... which meant that she needed to go inside very much.

Going through the hole in the door was rather anticlimactic. There wasn't anyone inside, and the corridors looked exactly the same. Shrugging and laughing at herself for expecting anything exciting, Samus began exploring. As her exploration continued, she felt her body temperature dropping.

Laboratories; dozens of experiments. There were heavy levels of nega photon radiation over everything, as heavy as the radiation on the research stations. Many of the things she had seen on Station Emerald were here as well, and some of the creatures she had fought on Station Sapphire were up on screens. This seemed like the culmination of the work of all three stations... and no records had indicated it even existed.

What exactly did that mean? Were the people behind this shadowy operation actually double crossing the scientists at the other stations, just using them and collecting all their data here? Or was this kept under far higher security than the rest of the project? Mystery upon mystery... but at the moment she didn't care.

More disturbing were the diagrams of human warriors, genetically combined with some of the aliens she had seen before. Like Tal, yet not completely like him. Curious, Samus examined the schematics further. They listed all the combat abilities of such models... making it pretty obvious what their intended purpose was. Though she already had enough evidence to lock anyone away for life, Samus downloaded this as well.

Oddly enough, however, things didn't quite match up. Tal's exoskeleton had been slightly different. It was interesting seeing how it moved beneath his skin, though slightly disgusting, and seeing how his internal organs would have permanently shifted to accommodate such a change. But the armor itself was still slightly different from Tal's. In fact, he had shown capabilities that she didn't see listed here. What did that make him?

Finishing the download, Samus moved on, to other experiments and the like. Then her eyes lit upon a large computer, documents still on screen. That was more like it. If anything was a base of operations, this was. A slight smile working its way onto her face, Samus moved to the computer and began reading.

"Wha- intrud-" the official's voice cut off as Samus shot him, without turning from the screen. As she read, she began to shake her head, almost in disbelief...

* * *

"Mr. Divel, sir!"

Calmly and coolly the politician in question turned to glance down at the aide rushing toward him. He had just stepped from his personal space ship, to a highly secure portion of his space station. In such conditions, he was not used to being assaulted with reports. The expression on his face clearly indicated his disdain.

"What is it?" he asked, as if infinitely patient with other's stupidity.

"Someone broke into the forbidden areas!" the aide gasped out. "They've probably seen everything, completely destroyed almost all of the TA project equipment and now they're downloading more information from the system. Most of the correspondences to the Galactic Council have already been taken!"

"Someone...?" Mr. Divel questioned. His features had tightened just slightly, however, the only indication of his worry. This could be very bad indeed...

"A bounty hunter, sir. We don't know who they are, but-"

"Samus," Mr. Divel hissed, eyes narrowing. His gaze shifted down to the aide, who quailed slightly. "Launch the entire TA series. Send security. Contact all the bounty hunters we have in our control. She must not leave this station alive."

"The... the TA series?" the aide stuttered. "Sir, they aren't ready... and besides, that would be a bloodbath!"

"I," Mr. Divel said calmly, voice icy and dangerous, "am the single most important man in the galaxy. In a few months, I will control everything. If I ask for a bloodbath... you'll give me a bloodbath."

* * *

Deeper and deeper the puzzle went. Scrolling down the page, Samus whistled lowly at what she read. This was quite a mess. By this point it was pretty obvious that almost the entire Galactic Council was corrupted, all controlled, knowingly or unknowingly, by certain individuals and corporations. All those led back to one man- Mr. Divel.

This corruption was so pervasive that it seemed no governmental organization was free from it. They, whoever "they" were, controlled the Assembly, the Council, the military... if all the facts that she had were made public, the government would be crippled. But private matters came before public ones, and she had a few scores to settle.

Jerking her head to the left, Samus narrowly avoided a burst of energy that blew off the top of the computer. Well, there went finding any further information. Not that it really mattered. She had the information that she needed. This annoying mystery had finally ended.

Ducking to the ground and spinning to face her attacker, her guns locking into place, Samus' fingers frozen just before they fully pulled the triggers. She had expected a guard at the doorway, or perhaps a bounty hunter. Not a warrior clad in exoskeleton, one hand raised.

Immediately she was forced to jump back slightly to evade another burst of nega photons. She recognized the armor as one of the varieties she had seen on the computer. Like Tal's and yet not like it. This one was also a very different color, light red as opposed to black. But it didn't matter. It was going to die.

Firing a barrage of low power shots that battered the twisted human back, Samus shifted her other arm from the magnetic grappling hook to the pointed one. After dodging another bolt, she fired it. The metal projectile broke through the monster's shoulder, expanding on the other side and locking into its back. It stumbled forward as she pulled herself across the room toward it.

Smashing an elbow into the creature's face, Samus drove it backward and into the wall. She felt the exoskeleton give way, which was surprisingly satisfying. These things weren't nearly as strong as Tal had been, then. Lesser models, so to speak.

One of its legs flew at her, but she met it on the way, smashing a foot into the partial alien's shin. Driving its leg to the floor, Samus turned and fired a shot at full power into its head. The creature fell back lifelessly. Not even that tough.

The next instant Samus ducked by instinct, and narrowly avoided a set of claws that would have slashed across her neck. Spinning on the ground, Samus tried to knock the new attacker, probably another twisted human, off its feet. It leapt just above her attack, but in the air couldn't dodge as she fired into its chest.

Blown backward, the creature managed to land on its feet and skidded across the chamber. So they were capable of surviving a shot like that. Probably a missile as well, though not a shot at her full power. It was moving with pretty good speed, evading her attacks. Though this one seemed to focus mostly on its claws, it could also fire the occasional bolt. Not fast enough to hit her, though.

Leaping back, the alien dropped to one knee and appeared to be concentrating. Samus had been about to charge, but decided against it, not knowing what it was doing. The next moment she regretted that, as the exoskeleton basically vomited something black onto the floor. Remembering Tal's acid, Samus began charging up power.

She realized, slightly disturbingly, that the dark mass on the floor was actually dozens of small, scorpion-like creatures. They began to rush across the floor toward her, even as the main opponent spit out more of them. Well... apparently some of them had unique abilities like Tal did. In that case, it was time to try out a new weapon.

Shifting her stored up energy to a different mode of gun, Samus slammed both of her gun arms to the ground and pulled her feet away from it. An almost painful jolt moved through her system as both barrels discharged a powerful burst of energy. Shockwaves flooded out from her guns, making the floor shudder violently.

Almost immediately the small creatures were tossed about, crumpling when they struck the ground again. The former human in the exoskeleton let out a scream, as the vibrations broke through it, unprotected by a bio suit. Cracks appeared all over its exoskeleton, some parts of it falling away.

Landing back on her feet, pleased enough with the weapon's performance, Samus prepared to continue the fight. It seemed, however, that such would not be necessary. The monster was barely on its feet, and Samus merely had to shoot it backward to finish the job.

Impact from the blast broke away the remainder of the creature's exoskeleton, and Samus got a good look at its face. Her face, she realized. She had been fighting a woman no older than herself, though horribly twisted by the TA procedure.

Powering down her weapons, Samus moved from the room, untouched. There were plenty of female bounty hunters far more dangerous than that. One thing she had learned... man, woman or child, if they were good enough, they could kill you. And, it seemed, these other TA models would try to do so.

Let them try.

* * *

A longer silence stretched about the Galactic Council chamber. There was little else to be said. After an unofficial fifteen minute break, they had begun work on the Council's official statement regarding the disaster at Bounty Hunter HQ. It had quickly become clear that seven members were moving in one direction, two in the other.

Mr. Stevenson dropped his face to his hands and sighed heavily once more. His only ally, the only person who opposed the seven, was sitting across the room. Yet he felt in his heart that he had no allies at all. This man was one of those he knew was corrupted. What his motives were was anyone's guess.

How long could he keep this up? How long could he fight against the odds, before he crumpled, or fell from exhaustion, or was defeated? Terribly, terribly tired... it felt like it had been so long. No one should have to live this long.

"News!" a voice abruptly called, as feet pounded across the steel floor. The entire Council whirled to look toward the aide that rushed into the room, slowing and panting beside the closest desk. Obviously he had ran from the nearest lift; a short distance, but he seemed to have given it his all.

When he had caught his breath, the aide went on to explain. "Several generals and one admiral have moved without your approval, or the Assembly's! A few hours ago select numbers of their forces equipped themselves and left. They have already reached the Bounty Hunter HQ, and are sweeping toward us!"

"What parsecs do they cover?" the Council Head immediately demanded, almost rising to his feet. Sweat was actually visible on his head, surprising Mr. Stevenson. Was there something that important to him?

"Generally, everything in the 3200-3600 area," the aide told him vaguely. Sensing how little his presence was wanted, he left the room almost as quickly as he had entered it. What he left behind was a stony silence as the seven glanced toward each other.

"There is no doubt," the Council Head said finally, grimly. "They will find all the operations if they sweep through that range, with battleship class sensors. We have to do something."

"Of course we have to do something!" one of the younger council members burst out, panic suddenly reaching a breaking point. "But _what are we going to do?_"

"Shut up!" the Head roared, rising to his feet. The leadership that had gotten him the office surrounded him like a cloak now, and his eyes practically flashed as he commanded the others swiftly. "You, call Mr. Divel and inform him of the approaching threat. You, call the Assembly and put a good spin on all this. You, transfer all funds out of the illegal accounts. Everyone else, clean the record. I want this place looking completely legitimate before anyone has time to consider suspecting us."

"I will not stand for this!" another voice broke through the Head's monologue. Even the council members scurrying to do their jobs glanced back to see who had spoken. Mr. Stevenson merely shook his head and turned away. So now his "ally" was moving. "All of you are corrupt! Completely corrupt!"

"What, is that a threat?" the Head responded, a smirk, sliding across his face. "What will you do, Percy? Turn us in and have the public discover that you were the one that held up that smuggling legislation? Turn us in and risk your ties to organized crime becoming quite obvious to everyone? You have nothing on us."

"That shows you know nothing," the other man hissed angrily. "I have a few... friends of the family that I could call. Things will not be so good as you think. What you have said here is already overtly criminal. The galaxy would be up in arms if they heard it. And," his face twisted into an angry smile as he pulled something small from his pocket, "I have all of it recorded."

A gunshot rang out the next instant, and the council member fell backward. The recorder slipped from his hands, bouncing loudly on the steel before coming to rest, moments before his body did the same. Everyone was silent, somewhat surprised by the sudden turn of events. Across the chamber, another of the council members replaced his gun calmly.

"That's the end of that, eh?" another council member laughed, standing and grinding the recording device under one foot. The others laughed along with him, except for the Council Head... who Mr. Stevenson realized was looking directly at him.

"What about you, Gogo?" the Head asked, staring at him intensely over his steepled hands. "Are you going to reveal your own secret weapon? Or will you see the light and join us? You must know that you cannot possibly stop us."

Very slowly, Mr. Stevenson got to his feet. He looked as an athlete who forced himself to stand after finishing a race... finishing a race and losing. Looking away from them, he slowly moved back from his chair. Agonizingly slowly he walked around the circle, toward the opening through which he moved to the center of the other seven.

Finally he looked up at them. His eyes seemed almost dead: dull, listless, purposeless. The silence in the room was so absolute that when he sighed all of them heard it clearly. Slowly he straightened his back, and there was a shadow of the man he had been before around him.

"I can't do anything to stop you," he admitted slowly. "I have no special recorders, no weapons. No skill with which to defeat you. If you shot me now I would fall and bleed and die like any other man.

"You say that you've won." Now Mr. Stevenson's voice began to change, becoming stronger and louder. His yes began to sparkle, and his aura captivated the Council. "But don't think you've seen the last of me!"

"The last of you? What can you do?" the Council Head managed to chortle, breaking out of the spell of words. Mr. Stevenson's intense gaze focused upon him instantly.

"I'm just an old man," was the biting reply. "You can shoot me, torture me, destroy me, discredit me and I can do nothing to stop you. None of us seem able to stop you. All the people like me who still believe in something good in this universe. But I believe that your victory is not complete! No matter what you do to me, you cannot erase my _spirit_ from the galaxy! I believe that there is still good out there, and it will stop you!"

His speech ended with a thundering silence. For a moment Mr. Stevenson stood before them, breathing slightly heavily, fierce gaze daring anyone to speak. Then he slumped slightly, and abruptly he looked far older than his years.

"I'm tired," he whispered. "So very tired. I'll be in my quarters."

Slowly he turned and trudged away, vanishing into the hallways of the bureaucracy.

"Glad to see him gone," the Head muttered. "All of you! Get to work!"


	22. Intolerable Cruelty

Given the content of this chapter, I would hope at least one person has something to say. Given that this chapter has to do with Tal...

* * *

Chapter 22: Intolerable Cruelty

Breaking down the corridor at top speed, Samus continued scanning through the map she had downloaded in the bio suit. Good, there was a normal floor one level up that was not connected to any station support or life-critical system. Blasting the ceiling at full power, Samus created a hole through which she could pull herself. One level higher.

Her only goal now was to find the head of the monster that was Project Darklight and kill it; Mr. Divel and anyone else who fit the description. She had discovered that the most important offices were on the top floor, specifically in a spire from the top of the station. If she could reach those offices before everyone on the station was aware of her presence she might be able to end all of this now.

Sensing something at the opposite end of the floor, Samus jerked to the left. Sharp spines whistled through the air, embedding themselves several inches in the metal wall before her. Turning away from the wall while ducking, Samus fired several shots vaguely in the direction the spines had come from.

Another of the exoskeletons, as she now categorized all the TA line and the pathetic creatures that had preceded it. There had been quite a few since they started coming, but they varied in strength considerably. Most of them were pretty weak, at least compared to what she could have faced, most were broken and insane, but a few were smart and tough. This one was flipping around on the opposite end of the corridor, dodging all of her shots gracefully. He was pretty fast.

But also pretty stupid. Samus' other hand became fully charged, and she swiftly brought it to bear and fired one massive shot of plasma. It tore through the thin corridor, sweeping right through the exoskeleton in the middle of a flip and ravaging the wall behind. That probably wasn't any good for the station, but at this point she was beyond caring.

Her next point of movement was a set of emergency stairs. Assuming the map was accurate, and so far it had been, there was another thin corridor that branched apart, a massive maintenance hallway and then the stairs. They'd let her skip up six levels, which would put her just two levels from the very top of the station. Almost there.

Taking the corner at full speed, Samus briefly ran on the wall out of necessity and then continued on. Ignore the first two branches, then take the left at the T... then just the large hallway. Hopefully there wouldn't be any sort of resistence force centered in the hallway, as seemed logical. She really couldn't afford to be slowed down by anything at this point. Turning a corner, guns ready to fire, Samus entered the chamber and skidded to a halt, jaw dropping...

He stood on the opposite end of the hallway, framed by the door to the stairs. The central air conditioning system nearby was blowing at full power, whipping his light shirt and dark pants. Deep black hair shifted just slightly as he looked up at her abruptly.

Could... could it really be him? Samus' guns lowered, though she didn't stop being alert. _Tal..._ Seeing him she realized how much she had really missed him, how much she had wanted him to be alive. It brought back the pain in her heart that had become numb... but at the moment that was what she wanted.

"Is that really you, Samus?" he asked, incredulous. "I... I didn't think you survived either!"

"What about you?" she asked, as both began to walk toward each other, not quite believing. "You were the one falling into deadly acid."

"It didn't effect me," he answered, eyes focused completely on hers. "Of course, I found that out too late. Where have you been?"

"Oh, you know. Around. Aiming to kill the people responsible for all this."

"It's so good to see you again," Tal told her, smile spreading across his face. They finally reached each other and remained staring at the other, motionless. For a long time neither of them stirred in the slightest, and then Tal moved forward and took her in his arms-

The needle slid into his neck swiftly, and after a quiet pause he fell back through the air limply. Before he reached the ground Samus had already grabbed him by the shoulders. With all the strength she possessed, she smashed him into the steel floor.

"Damn you!" she yelled, smashing him into the floor until the back of his head was bloody. "Damn you!" He tried to move in an abrupt manner, and his body only twitched weakly.

"What... what did you do?" he coughed. Through the visor, he caught a glimpse of Samus' eyes... and shuddered. The anger was gone, replaced by an icy calm that was far worse. That was the sort of expression that he feared.

"A tranquilizer," she answered coldly. "It would never have worked on the real Tal, but it will be good enough for you."

"Well, shit," he muttered, eyes widening in fear. "How did you know?"

"I'm not stupid. You can't emulate someone with just physical things. You don't act like him, you don't speak like him, you don't move like him. Tal would never have done something like that. Besides," she tapped the side of her helmet, "the last time I saw Tal he registered a bright red on the Darklight Scope. You aren't even blue."

"Then I suppose you've won, haven't you?" he shot back spitefully. "Go ahead and feel good about your- augh!"

Dropping his broken finger, Samus glared down at him, eyes flashing coldly. "I don't want to hear it. I'm asking the questions from now on. How did you do this? Make yourself look this way?"

"This?" he smirked slightly, between winces from the pain. "Simple. We still had bioscans of TA1, or Tal, if you insist. We knew his genetics. From that point it was just a matter of serious surgery to make me into an exact double. Not hard at all. All they needed was one of the TA models instead of the insane failed experiments."

"But why? Why did you choose to do something like this?"

"What does that have to do with anything? Do you think I'll just answer any questions you want?"

The next moment another of his fingers snapped, and he gasped in pain. Samus' gaze emotionlessly swept down on him. "Yes. If you don't talk I'll think of something a lot more painful than breaking your fingers."

"Fine. The plan was to trick you for a short while; I didn't really think I could fool you completely. But if I could get you within range, or better yet, out of your armor, a claw through your heart and it would all be over. Plus, I figured there'd be some shock value seeing Tal alive, and you wouldn't be operating at your best. Especially if I broke the news that he was as dead as dead can be just before I struck."

"I see," Samus said, almost casually. A more perceptive being might have noticed the shift in her voice... and trembled. The Tal look alike did not. "So you did that just to manipulate my emotions, eh? Make me relieved and then rip that away to get a moment to strike? Use the dead for your own purposes?"

"Basically, yeah. Good plan, but-" Samus' hand came down on his chest with a several sickening snaps and a crunch. The partial alien on the ground let out an agonizing scream that continued for some time, and then he was left gasping in pain on the ground. Above him, Samus' eyes were invisible inside her visor.

"I can't hurt you as much as you hurt me," Samus told him when he was in little enough pain to hear her, "but I can try."

"Please... please don't..."

"Who did this to you? Who made you what you are?"

"The... the scientists," he wheezed, a bit of blood trickling from his mouth.

"Scientists led by whom?"

"Politician. Don't know who."

"If you lie to me I will make sure you take hours to die," Samus snapped.

"Mr. Divel!" he gasped immediately.

"Good. Now, why'd they attack the Bounty Hunter HQ?"

"It... it was because of Station Sapphire. Word got out. Questions were asked." The monster gurgled for a moment, then struggled to continue. "People in high places got suspicious. Then when word got around that the HQ had some sort of specimen, it just got worse. They attacked the HQ to cover their tracks. He's mad, I tell you," the man on the ground suddenly became more animated, eyes pleading. Weakly his hands tried to grasp at her arms, to pull himself closer.

"Who?"

"Mr. Divel! He'll do anything to get what he wants! All of this... all of this has been by his hands. After Tal got away, he was willing to work off incomplete data and genetic material to make more super soldiers. Hundreds of us died before he got it right."

"Who is 'us?'"

"Criminals at first. When he got desperate he would take anyone he could find. Now he's going to slaughter everyone who's heard of the Darklight Project. If he can stall everything long enough to begin his production line, he'll have a small army within a few weeks. With enough of us, nothing will be able to stop him."

"That's what I plan to do."

"Please, kill him!" the broken creature begged, voice rising even though blood began to flow more freely from it. "For what he did to Tal even though you don't care about me! There are four laboratories on this station... if all of them and Mr. Divel are destroyed, the Darklight project will be ended permanently! Everyone on this station is going to die... but Mr. Divel is going to get away! You have to kill him... have to..." his words cut off in a series of bloody coughs.

For a single moment Samus was looking down at him. That moment seemed to hold eternity within it, and she felt as though she was there for ever so long. Her eyes, which had been cold, softened just slightly mercifully.

"Thanks," she whispered. "Rest in peace." The plasma bolt from her arm ended his life instantly and painlessly. Rising to her feet, Samus ground a hand together angrily. In a strange way, all of this motivated her even more. Kill Mr. Divel, eh? That was exactly what she intended to do.

Breaking for the stairs, Samus blew away the door and leapt inside. Activating her jet packs, she literally flew around the stairs, rocketing toward the highest levels. His days were numbered. She wanted to ensure that number was around zero.

Blasting off the door to the highest level she could reach by stairs, Samus broke into the next level. She had barely gone a few feet when the station jerked violently, sending her hurtling across the room. Catching herself on the wall and tumbling with the movement, Samus managed to avoid any damage and merely fell in a heap on the floor.

Pulling herself up, Samus glanced around. That hadn't been a localized attack... it was as if something was destroying the entire station. Bad. Very bad. She needed to find out what was going on extremely quickly. Rushing through a broad corridor, Samus moved toward a computer terminal that appeared to be active.

There was a lot more of a battle going on than she'd first imagined. All the failed experiments were probably killing everything in their path. From the levels of energy and heat in the station, it appeared that there was a full-fledged battle going on. Even the corridor around her was littered with exoskeletons and bodies.

Reaching the computer and anchoring herself near it magnetically, Samus brought up a full station report. She couldn't access everything, but it was evident that the station was taking heavy damage. There appeared to be some major battleships nearby, but they were currently engaged with many other ships.

Galactic Council ships, she realized. They were fighting on opposite sides, some for the station and some against it. There were bounty hunters rushing in every direction, most on the side of the station but some sniping at whoever they could hit. On the station itself there appeared to be heavy fighting, between two sides as well.

Flipping between the security cameras still unbroken, Samus looked over the combatants. Everyone was here. Corrupt Galactic Council troops. Normal Galactic Council troops. Bounty hunters. Space pirates. Mercenaries. Aliens. Twisted monsters in exoskeletons. This was it. All of it was coming down now.

A slight smile appeared on Samus' face in anticipation. Bring it on.


	23. Growing Pains

I can update "soon" if soon is considered today. My intention is to update every Monday, but thank you for your reviews none the less.

Thank you very much for your review, alleycat1312; it is appreciated, and I hope that the story does not disappoint. Yes, I am far from done (in terms of updating).

Regarding biology: It would not have been possible for Tal to rip off his exoskeleton (and that would likely have made him die from hemorrhaging regardless). To answer another question, yes, Tal has the DNA from numerous alien species. The only real function of the Metroid DNA was to synthesize all the other traits.

Regarding Tal: No, you cannot vote to bring Tal back (I think there would be little contest). I had written every chapter of this story prior to updating the first chapter on CAA; the plot is set in stone regardless of what you say. After you read this chapter you can lament this if you truly wish to do so.

* * *

Chapter 23: Growing Pains 

"-ed for increased taxes seven times in this past year. The Galactic public has just one question to ask itself: does it want a liberal tax and spend government? Every single fault that has ever been known to mankind is due to liberalism. Yes; all of them. Fascism? Yeah, that was liberals. The Moral Majority? Liberals. It's all their fault. So there.

"Stop their vicious smear campaign next election; make the right choice: vote for you... vote for Bill Ytpmuh."

"Bill Ytpmuh may claim to represented the common man. But he's actually a stupid rich fop who's just running a vicious smear campaign. He is bad. Bob Ytpmud is good. Bad is bad; good is good. Good, bad, bad, good. Bad, good, good, good, bad. Bad, bad. Good, bad, good. Repeat after us: Bob Ytpmud good, Bill Ytpmuh bad.

"Next election, make the right choice: vote for you... vote for Bob Ytpmud."

"Now, welcome back to the Nightly News at Nine! I'm Steve "Stevey" Stevenson, filling in for Johnny at Universal News. Make sure to stay tuned until 10:00, Terran Time, for our exclusive interview with the maker of the box office hit 'I Hate Everyone!' But now, the current news.

"We seem to be out of the frying pan and into fire! (laughter) The situation at the Bounty Hunter Headquarters, or 'HQ', has finally resolved, but things don't look any less tense. Meanwhile, the Galactic Council has still refused to make a statement and reports it is still in session. The Assembly, however, has raised the Galactic Alert Level to Plaid.

"The Board, a select group of bounty hunters, is now claiming that Galactic Council forces attacked without provocation. A counter statement is expected to be made later today. Whose fault is this mess? Why did it happen? Who is really at fault for these things? That's what we're here to tell you.

"This just in... a new report on galactic statistics reports that poverty rates in fourth world countries have risen dramatically. It is now estimated that millions of people die every year solely from starvation that could have been prevented by less than the equivalent of five credits in galactic currency. My heart goes out to all those poor people.

"When we return, we'll finally release the fifth portion of our five part super-documentary: 'Gilligan's Island: Is Mary Ann Really Prettier Than Ginger?' This is a multi-million credit production that you won't want to miss! See you there!"

* * *

"Status report." 

"I... I don't want to say this, Mr. Divel."

"If you would be so kind," Mr. Divel said silkily, face set in a disturbing smile. It was quite clear he was not asking. Shifting back slightly, the aide did his best not to look intimidated. Even to be a lowly aide in this station meant that he had backstabbed, lied and bribed his way to the position... but anyone had reason to be nervous around the boss.

"Frankly, everything's coming down around us, sir. I don't think anyone is close enough to be able to reach the highest offices, or break through the guard, but this station is lost to us."

"Very well. Move to the secondary plan." Mr. Divel was already getting to his feet, calmly brushing a bit of lint off of his suit.

"It's too late for that, sir. The entire station, excepting highest security levels, is in a state of warfare. Our computer systems are damaged enough that we cannot contact all of the other high offices, much less everyone."

"Then don't contact everyone," Mr. Divel answered. "The important people will survive, and the rest will not. I'm committed to finishing what I started, and I will sacrifice whatever is necessary. We cannot back down now. Let the station be destroyed; there are other avenues that should be pursued. Let's roll."

* * *

Guards. 

Rolling to the left, Samus narrowly avoided being seen. Putting her back up to a wall, Samus charged both weapons and then bolted in front of the doorway. Immediately the guards saw her, but they were already being fired upon heavily. Most of them were wearing heavy armor and survived the volley as well as the smoke that resulted.

Samus was already past the door, completely gone. The guards raised eyebrows... a hit and run? Just as they were about to chase her down, one of them noticed the mines blinking beside them on the floor. It was about then that the entire doorway was consumed in a raging inferno that left nothing but a gaping hole. Moving from her hiding place, Samus calmly walked through the newly renovated passage.

No guards.

Things hadn't been very difficult since she had reached the top of the stairs, though they were certainly more intense than before. The first level had been mostly unoccupied, but when she reached the highest level it had been far from it. There were guards all over the place here. Generally slightly better equipped, trained and experienced than those she was used to fighting. Still, not bounty hunter level.

That was what worried her more. Sooner or later she was going to run into other bounty hunters, and that would slow her down immensely. There appeared to be battles already going on at this level of the station, because there were a fair number of corpses that she hadn't made. Bounty hunters, too. It must be vicious up here.

Dropping low to the ground swiftly, Samus glanced to her right. Fighting. So far she had been one party in each battle, but this one appeared to be going on by itself. There was a fair amount of gunfire. That was probably her next threat, then, unless she could avoid them entirely.

Catching something on the edge of her sensors, Samus whirled to glance toward her left. Beyond a massive doorway there lurked a fairly large group of soldiers. Coming in her direction and broadcasting energy generally associated with bio suits. Not good. They weren't high level bio suits, but she still didn't want to deal with any bounty hunters. There was always an outside chance they were soldiers in bio suits, but it wasn't a chance she wanted to take.

Slipping around the large door, Samus glanced forward into the corridor. A single, massive hallway went for quite some distance before turning a corner... and the bounty hunters were about to turn that corner. Slamming the controls and barely hitting the closing button, Samus began the long process of closing the blast doors. Several thick layers began to slide into place... good.

Shots rained down on her from the opposite side of the corridor, in addition to a few missiles. Avoiding the former and shooting down the latter, Samus returned fire. All the bounty hunters dodged her attack, but it barely slipped through the remaining crack in the door. A resounding crash signaled the closing of the door.

Almost immediately after, Samus began to hear a continuing whine. So they were going to slice a hole through the door. It wouldn't hold them too long... but she'd be long gone by the time they got to this side of it. Turning, Samus moved to continue on.

Claws whistled just above her head as she ducked, only barely avoiding the slash. Great; this one was extremely fast as well as sneaky. Continuing to drop to the ground, Samus whirled, trying to sweep her attacker's legs out from under it. The exoskeleton dodged and was already striking at her again.

Back flipping swiftly, Samus narrowly evaded the claws that buried themselves in the floor where she had crouched. Her hand was already up, firing a bolt of plasma at the creature's head. Seeing her gun arm move up, the creature jerked its head to the side just before she fired, dodging the attack. Both of them moved the next instant, other arms flying to strike. Samus' gun touched the creature just over the heart; the creature's claws justly barely reached her forehead.

"Samus?"

"Tal?" It was actually him. His shade of exoskeleton; his voice; his claws about to make a good effort to impale her brain. Then again, she still did have her gun pointed directly at his heart. As one they retracted their weapons. Tal offered Samus a hand up that she didn't need but took anyway.

"Imagine meeting you here," Tal muttered, scratching the back of his head. Samus just nodded. The shock of seeing him alive had been mostly depleted by the fake Tal... but she still wasn't completely caught up with it. She was almost completely certain he was real this time, but checked Darklight mode anyway. Now he was glowing far more brightly than before, whitely luminous in his black and green surroundings.

"The question is how you're alive," Samus pointed out. Tal nodded absentmindedly, the way he always had. She almost hadn't noticed when he'd retracted the exoskeleton around his head. For the sake of similarity, she unfused her helmet and just held it in one hand.

"The acid very nearly killed me, but I survived for reasons I'm not entirely certain about as of yet. My genetics aren't completely carbon based, for one. But they've also been tampered with and made to be quite elastic. Junk DNA to the second power, you might say. My current best guess is that my body was able to absorb the violent changes the acid was trying to cause.

"Of course, it still knocked me out for a few hours. If I needed to breathe, I would have drowned long ago. Anyway, once I got past the pain and the changes, I searched the station and discovered that you had left or were at least hiding well. However, I did find a ship that was preparing to go to this station. I snuck aboard and I've been here ever since."

"Stop. Back up. Pain?"

"The acid business brought on another level of my genetic modifications. Whenever new ones appear they don't feel exactly comfortable, especially not when they manifest themselves so unnaturally like that. In this case they matured instantly and more swiftly than they were supposed to, and that slowed me down because they require a lot of retraining to handle."

* * *

_There had long been no movement in the room, the air barely shifting. The smell of scorched flesh and metal pervaded the room; the very air was heavily ionized. Bodies were littered over the surface, technical equipment shattered, walls broken. Several pools of acid lay completely still near the center of the floor._

_A long claw shot up from one of the pools, burying itself in the metal. Moments later, another claw emerged from the now turbulent pool. The thing that shakily pulled itself out of the pool barely resembled a human. _

_Skin was only partially hanging on the body, in some places gone entirely and showing dark exoskeleton beneath. It was covered by acid and sopping wet scraps of clothes that were no more than partially dissolved threads. Spikes and metallic claws emerged from all over its body, blood trickling down from the holes they had ripped._

_It crawled a short distance from the pool, still on its knees. Energy radiated from it almost visibly as nega photons were sent flying across the room. In moments Tal was dry, though still wrecked and bloodstained._

_Wincing from the pain, he drew his hands up to his face to stare at them. From the center of each finger a long, thin blade had emerged, splitting through the skin. The shock from the pain was making his hands tremble... he couldn't stop them.. At that moment he desperately wanted to be able to stop them, would have given almost anything to do so, but they just kept trembling. _

_Gritting his teeth and narrowing his eyes, he focused on his hands as hard as he possibly could. Slowly his claws retracted, painfully sliding back into his skin, over burned and cut flesh. Glancing over his shoulder, Tal shuddered with the pain as he drew the spikes coming out of his back into his body once more. One by one the unnatural protrusions were drawn back into his body... and they found places in which to safely remain. The newly shaped flesh was painfully raw and tender._

Keep it under control,_ Tal told himself, closing his eyes and concentrating, _keep it under- augh! _The pain made him nearly fall to the ground where he caught himself on one hand. His vision blurred... and so did his focus. He let out a series of painful near-screams as blades began to shoot back out of his body again, breaking newly forming skin._

_No. He wouldn't give up. Not now. Locking his teeth together and almost growling, Tal began to move forward, leaving a bloody trail behind him. _

* * *

"But I'd rather not talk about myself," Tal finished after a slight, unfocused pause. "What about you? Have you been doing alright?" 

"Other than assuming you were dead-"

"Sorry. Honestly."

"-I've been fine. After a while at the HQ I discovered this location, broke into my ship and flew here. I haven't had too much of a problem."

"Good. Do you still have the files?"

"Yeah." Samus let herself smile slightly. "After we're done here, we have an air-tight case against everyone involved in Project Darklight. It's most of the government, too; we're going to stick it to the man."

"There are about eight copies of most of the information in existence," Tal informed her. "I made sure that this knowledge can't die with us. Not that I have any intention of dying."

"Right."

"That whine..." Tal looked to the side, where the bounty hunters were breaking through the door. "Bounty hunters trying to carve their way through heavy blast doors? How long do they have?"

"Not long. But first we have to plan."

"Ah. Are you coming up here to find the people in charge of this too?"

"Exactly." Samus moved some distance along the wall toward the first general computer terminal and uploaded her bio suit's map to the screen. Tal followed noiselessly and examined the screen carefully. "This is the last normal floor of the station," she explained. "After that there is only a spire that holds the highest offices. There are two separate paths in the spire. I'm pretty sure I know which one has our target in it, but since there are two of us we can be certain anyway."

"Where's your ship?"

"Further down on the opposite side." Samus scrolled the map so that the location was visible. "So far it seems to be safe. The battle outside the station is still raging, though the real Galactic Council seems to be winning, and won't reach that hanger for some time."

"So the plan is this," Tal summarized. "We take out these bounty hunters, then each take one side of the spire. After killing Mr. Divel or whoever else is responsible, we both use these alternate passages and rendezvous at your ship."

"You know about Mr. Divel?"

"In this station I've been over a lot of information, yeah. Probably the same stuff that you went over... most of the Galactic Council responsible and the like?"

"Good; I didn't want to waste time explaining things to you. Your plan is fine. We have about thirty seconds before they break through that door."

"Ah." Tal paused, glancing down at the floor, not meeting her gaze. "Samus, I... I'm not sure how to put this, and this really might be a bad time. But when I was nearly dead in the acid, I realized something. It's... it's just..."

He was effectively silenced the next moment when Samus kissed him. There was a second of confusion before he responded. It was a bit uncomfortable, given that both were so heavily armored, but that really wasn't the point. With little time, they parted quickly.

"Was that what you wanted to say?" Samus asked him.

"Well... um, yeah. Thanks." Both of them glanced toward the door at the same instant as a hot circle of red began to form in the door. The next moment Samus was replacing her helmet and Tal bringing out his full exoskeleton.

"If the acid took you to a new level, do you have any impressive new powers?" Samus asked, glancing at him sideways through her visor. His blue eyes almost glowed within his exoskeleton, making him seem totally alien, but he scratched the back of his head in a distinctly human manner.

"Well, I don't know if you'd exactly call them impressive, but I learned some new practical uses for nega photons. It's interesting, you can speed up the movement of atoms and spark a chemical rea- never mind, they'll be coming through in just a sec."

"They're all yours," Samus said, stepping away from the door. "I want to see this."

The red circle in the thick metal door was glowing intensely now, and as Tal stood calmly in front of it, the entire mass began melting. Metal away fell in red clumps, revealing a small group of bounty hunters in the hallway behind it. Seeing a target so immediately, the bounty hunters pulled their weapons into firing position...

Tal blew, and his breath streamed forward in a blue streak. A short distance from his face the blue stream burst into flames that quickly built into a raging blaze. As Tal continued to blow out the stream of blue, the column of flame built, eventually eclipsing the hole entirely and creating an inferno in the corridor beyond. When he cut off the stream, all that remained in the corridor were melted bio suits lying on scorched metal.

_Holy cr-_ "Eh, that was close enough to impressive," Samus commented. Both of them blew down the corridor the next second, heading for the entrance to the spire. The hallways split almost immediately, and they cut down opposite sides, losing each other in the corridors...


	24. The Contender

I am glad that you all like Tal back; while I enjoy writing Samus, it is character interaction that best fuels this story. Similarly, I am glad that Mr. Stevenson is liked; I cannot say that he plays a major role in the story, but it is also not an unimportant one.

This chapter is one of the best, in my opinion. A person previously asked the question as to who is the best bounty hunter, between Samus and Veronica... light will be shed on that in this chapter.

Chapter 24: The Contender

Guards lined the corridors, looking alert and ready to fire. Their orders were to kill anything that entered the corridor on sight. All of them were fully prepared, even eager, to follow the order. Nothing, they thought, was going to get past them.

Explosions rocked through the corridor as carefully planted bombs took out the first of the troops. Plasma was already exploding through the air, killing the next wave of guards just as they began pulling up their guns. Five guards remained around the door at the end of the hallway. Five shots; five guards dropped to the ground. Samus strode through the flames, their low level heat unable to reach her, and blasted her way through the door.

The room beyond was silent, sophisticated and empty. Unlike the rest of the station, it had a thick, soft carpet and wallpaper. It looked almost like a classy hotel, except more opulent. Samus half-way expected to see a chandelier on the ceiling. Walking into the room, she examined the opposite wall.

It was relatively obvious there had once been a ship built into this point. A special ship that would not appear unusual on the station but would allow for quick escapes in dangerous times... such as now. Then she was too late. By the looks of things, far too late. Hopefully Tal was having better luck, but by the looks of this place Samus was pretty certain Mr. Divel had been the one down this corridor.

Raising a hand behind her head, Samus calmly caught the spike of a grappling hook moments before it struck her. Almost casually she turned, still gripping the wire tightly, to look at the bounty hunter standing in the shadows of the room behind her. There was a long moment of stony silence.

"Veronica."

"Samus."

"And so it comes to pass," Samus murmured.

"Do you have anything else to say?"

"Do you?"

"Not really," Veronica responded before taking on a savage grin, "Let's find out which of us is really better, once and for all."

At the same instant both of them moved.

Guards lined the corridors, looking alert and ready to fire. Their orders were to kill anything that entered the corridor on sight. All of them were fully prepared, even eager, to follow the order. Nothing, they thought, was going to get past them.

It was over almost before they realized that it had begun. Something like a wind swept down the corridor, a barely visible black streak. White flashing attacks struck each of the guards along the way, sending them falling in not even bleeding pieces. Retracting the blades into his fingers, Tal returned to full claws, even as he leaped through the door.

Landing heavily in the room on the battered door, Tal immediately swept his gaze to the man standing shocked in one corner. Smoothly Tal swept to him, gripping him by the collar of his shirt and raising him up to look him in the eyes.

"Where's Mr. Divel?" Tal demanded. The man's eyes went wide.

"He... he left the station a while ago. At least half an hour."

"Going where?"

"To the Galactic Council central station," the man stammered, severely shaken by Tal's appearance. _Like some sort of monster from a fairy tail... _He'd seen plenty of TA models before, but never one so dark, so intense.

"Why?"

"I don't know!"

"Hazard a guess," Tal commanded, grip tightening and claws beginning to slice dangerously through the official's shirt.

"He probably has back up plans!" the man frantically answered, "Maybe he wants to stop this from breaking all over the galaxy! Maybe he just wants to save his own skin! I don't know!"

Not answering, Tal merely kept the politician lifted off the floor, thinking deeply. So Mr. Divel was fleeing this situation... but was he really fleeing? Almost everything he had was destroyed or would be soon when the Galactic Council finished the battle. Was the government corrupt enough that Mr. Divel could control it even with all this? He knew that the Galactic Council was already under his control, and probably a great deal of the Assembly, but how much force could he actually bring to bear?

"You... you can't kill me," the suit said, reminding Tal of his presence. "I can speak with your creators, with Mr. Divel. If I give the word, they'll kill you and all the other freaks."

"Think before you start talking," Tal told him dryly. The next instant his claws flashed in an efficient and lethal arc. Dropping the body, Tal glanced about the room and then took off down the corridor. Hopefully Samus had received better luck. In any case, it was time to plan his next move.

Samus jerked the grappling wire just as Veronica pulled the switch to retract it. The metal spike was ripped from her grasp, flying back toward Veronica's gun. Shifting her gauntlet from glove to gun mode, Samus fired a quick shot that managed to knock the spike off its course.

Shifting to compensate for the wildly flying grappling hook, Veronica was distracted long enough for Samus to hit her with a few shots. She staggered backward, only minorly damaged, before abruptly leaping away, avoiding the remainder of Samus' fire. Landing on the wall, Veronica rapidly fired gatling-gun styled blasts.

Dodging right, Samus rolled and swiftly retreated to the opposite end of the room. Rolling partially up the side of the wall, she pulled out of her crouch, already firing. At the same instant both of them launched grappling hooks on the opposite sides of the room and pulled toward each other.

They crossed near each other in midair, shots firing but striking nothing. Turning off the magnetic grappling hook, Samus dropped to the ground just before fire struck the wall where she had landed. From the ground she fired backward, catching Veronica in the leg but not causing much damage.

Abruptly Veronica vanished, leaving nothing in the office but Samus and what remained of the furniture. Whirling to her feet, Samus swiftly glanced about the room. So she had cloaking as well. Of course, she had already lowered her suit's temperature and was invisible by all accounts. Gunfire exploded toward Samus the next moment, and she flipped backward, managing to avoid most of it.

Firing at the source of the blasts, Samus discovered, as expected, that Veronica had already moved. The next instant a gun struck the side of her head, sending her staggering just slightly. Unfortunately, Veronica made a serious mistake by getting that close to Samus. Before Samus had fallen far, Samus' other leg slammed to the ground, stopping her fall. In the same motion one of her hands had already clamped around Veronica's cloaked wrist.

Jerked through the air without warning, Veronica was slammed to the ground a moment before Samus landed as well, her elbow driving into the other bounty hunter's stomach. Gasping past pain, Veronica activated jet packs, blasting away from Samus, who barely rolled out of the way. Moments later the energy from the jet packs vanished, leaving her as ghostlike as before.

Dodging fire to the center of the room, Samus rerouted energy to another new weapon. Before Veronica could fire on her new position, an ear-shattering wave of sound exploded from Samus' bio suit. Veronica gave a slight cry and put both hands to her ears reflexively.

Her brief noise pinpointed her location for Samus, and a massive plasma shot smashed into the cloaked bounty hunter. Crashing back and partially through a metal wall, Veronica hissed in anger. This battle was slowly wearing her down: heavy damage to her overall system, jet packs only partially online, armor almost completely wasted, cloaking functions offline. Most of her weapons still worked, though.

Growling in the back of her throat, Veronica rose to her feet, glaring out from the smoke rising from her impact. She realized with shock that there appeared to be no one else in the room. The next second her feet were swept from the ground and she was falling back. It didn't cause any damage... but the energy bolts slamming into her in midair did.

Skidding back across the ground, Veronica shifted one arm and launched a fine spray through the air. Instantly glowing sparks lit up around Samus' cloaked form, making her location quite clear. Dropping out of cloaked mode, Samus immediately leapt left to avoid further fire from Veronica.

Moving to close range, Veronica fired a missile directly toward Samus, taking advantage of her momentary jump. With startling speed Samus flipped backward, kicking the rocket away from her. It crashed into one of the walls and blew away a major portion of it.

In midair Samus' back was exposed, and Veronica capitalized on the moment. Shifting a blade out of one of her arms, she aimed to slice through the blond bounty hunter's back. Before it struck, Samus turned slightly, and clamped the blade between a knee and an elbow. The move put her fist aimed for Veronica's head... and a blast slammed directly into the former attacker's helmet.

Flipping in midair and landing on her feet, Veronica slapped her helmet in an effort to clear static from her vision. That had taken out a few computer systems, though thankfully nothing vital. Changing her other hand to a blade as well, Veronica struck out at her opponent, who was just now landing on her feet.

_She just doesn't learn, does she?_ Samus mused to herself, shifting to a mode where she could use her hands. With startling speed she gently pushed aside Veronica's blows, effortlessly defending herself. The instant she had an opening, she smacked a palm into her opponent's helmet, knocking her off balance. Striking with all the physical and mechanical power she had, Samus kicked the purple bio suit directly in the chest.

Hurtling backward across the room, Veronica slammed into a wall. Cracks had formed across the front of her bio suit. She realized with a cold sweat that one good shot would leave her completely exposed. Flesh struck by plasma...

Touching the ceiling with magnetically charged hands, Veronica pulled herself up to it, barely avoiding Samus' shots. Too late she saw the wire slicing through the air, hitting her arm and wrapping itself around her wrist. Jerked off the ceiling, Veronica braced herself for the blasts she knew were coming, doing her best to spin and avoid them.

Shots blazed around her, but Veronica felt no fatal impact. Amazing, and quite fortuitous. Landing just before Samus, she leveled both her guns at the other bounty hunter's head, energy charging dangerously within them. A smirk spread across her face.

"Game Over. You missed."

"Did I?" Samus asked calmly. For the first time Veronica took a look at the guns at the ends of her arms... and realized they had been mostly blown away, leaving her gloved hands in the air, unable to fire. The shock stunned her for a split second, in which Samus slapped a hand on her shoulder and then leapt backward.

"Eject!" Veronica roared, executing the verbal command as quickly as possible. The suit violently unfused, hurling her away from it seconds before the bomb attached to it shattered it into thousands of pieces that rained down into the carpet. Striking the wall painfully and collapsing, Veronica could barely pull herself up when a needle struck her arm. She slumped to the ground further. What could she do without her bio suit?

Samus loomed above Veronica, who gasped and shrank back. A long pause stretched between them.

"What, Samus? Not going to kill me? Too soft?"

"I need information from you," Samus stated flatly. "Besides... you aren't even worth killing."

"What? I-"

"I assure you I can get the information out of you one way or another. Did Mr. Divel hire you?"

"Yeah," Veronica nodded quickly. "He hired a whole lot of the bounty hunters, quite some time ago. Didn't tell us why but paid pretty well. Was prone to rambling about things involving taking over the world. He's probably going back to the Galactic Council Central Station now to try and mend his broken plans."

"My. You certainly are loyal to your employer."

"I hate the arrogant dick," Veronica spat. "I hate you too, but I'm kind of hoping you both kill each other. It'd be viciously iro-"

"Don't care," Samus cut her off. "Thanks for being helpful. Have fun sitting here until the entire station explodes and you burn to death."

"Oh, it'll be a ball." Samus was just leaving when Veronica exerted considerable effort to call after her. "What are you doing, Samus? Why are you working with the TA1?"

"What the hell are you babbling about?" Samus asked, stopping.

"I worked with some of the other TA models too, you know. You can control him now, but for how long? They're all monsters, I tell you, not even slightly human. Eventually he'll turn on you! What are you going to do when he gets stronger than you are?"

"He might already be," Samus answered simply.

"What?"

"I haven't seen all he can do since last time, but there's a chance he's more dangerous than I am now." Briefly her mind returned to the Darklight Scope's view of Tal, a hot white glowing being.

"Oh... then _he's_ controlling _you_," Veronica realized slowly.

"No. It isn't about control." Samus glanced back toward the fallen bounty hunter contemptuously. "But I don't think you can understand that."

Before any further words could be spoken the entire station rocked violently. There was an explosion of solid white, and then Samus felt everything fading into darkness...


	25. Paradigm Shift

This chapter was somewhat difficult to write, but I hope it is enjoyed none the less.

* * *

Chapter 25: Paradigm Shift 

Bleary shapes. Colors shifting apparently at random. Relatively severe cold.

Several things immediately registered in Samus' mind. First, she was out of her bio suit. Second, she was bound by chains that felt like some manner of plastic/steel hybrid. Worst, she had some sort of sedating drug in her system. Whatever the situation, it was a bad one, and she was in the hands of the enemy.

Abruptly there was a face directly in her own, leering at her. Working past the drug, Samus managed to focus upon it slightly. Veronica.

"The tables have turned, haven't they, Samus?" she gloated. "Now you're a vulnerable as I am, but quite unable to defend yourself. It's a shame they want you alive, or you'd have been dead a long time ago."

"How?" Samus managed to choke out. Veronica's smile widened.

"An enormous blast knocked both of us out. But it appears that I have many friends and you don't. One of the ships picked both of us up. One of my ships. They healed me, of course, and made sure you couldn't do anything to stop us. Now you can sit here and wait until the Galactic Council is through with you... then I'll make sure you die as slowly and painfully as possible."

"My... my suit," Samus mumbled, still not fully recovered. "What happened to it?"

"You should worry more about yourself," Veronica snickered. "...but don't worry, it's just fine. It'll be in good hands. Terribly unflattering, but after I refit it and give it an extreme make over it should be a pretty good tool."

Silently Samus seethed about her inability to do anything. She wasn't really worried for herself, so the situation was more annoying than worrying. Tal was almost certainly going to follow her, and could probably do so relatively swiftly. Without a bio suit, Veronica would be fodder for him. The only question was if they would kill her before he arrived, and there was nothing she could do about it at the moment. Worrying would accomplish nothing.

Though she really didn't want Veronica to have her way with the bio suit. She'd slaughter the functionality for the sake of appearance. At least if that happened Samus would probably be dead and wouldn't have to watch. Of course, if that happened, the suit would most likely get destroyed when Tal killed Veronica... but she'd rather it be scrap than worn by a bounty hunter like that. While worrying might accomplish nothing, imagining Veronica very dead did make her feel slightly better.

Ignoring Veronica's taunts, Samus laughed mentally at herself for her cynicism. Things would go as they would go. For once her life, she could let someone else do the work. All of Project Darklight was declining, and soon it would all be over. Time was ticking...

* * *

Loosening his claws from the hull of the ship, Tal pushed off it, hurtling into space. Throwing nega photons out behind him, he accelerated to a reasonable speed and then let his momentum carry him through the vacuum. Within a few minutes the remains of the space ship were invisible behind him in the starry void. 

This was going to be a long and dull trip, but a completely essential one. Sighing, Tal rolled his eyes at the irony. Here he was, desperately needing to hurry, and all he could do was casually sit around as he sailed through space. But it had to be done, and this was the only way. At least it gave him time to plan completely.

Just as he had been about to rip through the walls to where Samus was, a titanic explosion had ripped through the entire station. It had blown him out of the spire and into empty space. The Galactic Council ships had finally destroyed their opposition. Most of the corrupted vessels were nothing more than scrap heaps and the rest of the bounty hunters and mercenaries had fled. Unopposed, the ships' fire had ripped the station in half. Everything on it was going to be destroyed, Tal recognized instantly, and he had gotten away from the blast quickly.

He was almost completely certain that Samus had survived. She hadn't appeared immediately, which he took as a certain sign something had stopped her. Eventually her ship had left the docking bay, but he knew instantly that she wasn't the one driving it. Unfortunately, he had been tied up by some space pirates and unable to follow.

Corrupt Galactic Council vessels had flanked Samus' ship, and they had quickly vanished. Faster than he could hope to follow them. But he had been able to discover their destination... the center for the entire Galactic Council itself. Security was at maximum levels, and there were Galactic Council ships everywhere.

Immediately Tal had decided that attempting to break into the station would be foolish. He could do it, yes, but they might kill Samus if they discovered what he was doing. Instead it would be far better to sneak in on a ship of his own and pretend to be a normal person. If Samus needed any help he could provide it, and then both of them could make a quick exit before anyone knew they were present.

The closest reasonable location was the Bounty Hunter Headquarters. Not far by ship, but it would take him a fair amount of time flying in this manner. Already he had been going for hours. Fortunately he was able to navigate by the stars all about him.

Behind him was the remains of his meal. By chance he had run into a group of space pirates that had picked him up, thinking he was trash of some sort. That had been a pretty big mistake, one that had played like a low budget horror movie. Now they were all scattered over the floor, picked off silently one by one. Unfortunately for him, their ship was nearly destroyed and unusable, and Tal had merely found what supplies he needed and left.

Now all that was left was to sneak into the Bounty Hunter HQ, not difficult given the rebuilding state it was in, find or steal a ship, fly to the Galactic Council and then find Samus. Beyond that he wasn't sure what they would do, but they were already conveniently close to authorities, so he had a few ideas.

Floating through the desolate space, Tal let his thoughts drift from his plans to Samus. Seeing her again would be very good. It was odd how their relationship had changed, but it wasn't really uncomfortable. Besides, at the moment they had more important issues on their hands. After the situation had been resolved, then there'd be a bit more time to explore those possibilities.

Beneath the exoskeleton that covered his body, Tal smiled slightly. Throwing a few more waves of nega photons behind him, he put on another burst of speed and vanished into the endless darkness.

* * *

Yawning and glancing to the side, David Anez nudged the stack of papers, making them drop off the edge of the computer terminal and fall mostly in the trash. Maybe he could "accidentally" pour his coffee over them as well. And stomp on them. Or just burn them. It wouldn't be his fault if they were accidently put in a batch of papers going to the shredder, would it? 

Sighing, he leaned over and pulled the papers back to the computer terminal. Grumbling under his breath he began reordering them. Stupid thing to do, really, but he felt better after doing it. That was what he really wanted to do.

There was so much paperwork. Not even the pointless kind, which bounty hunters despised, but hundreds of people asking for repairs and new docking codes. Though David aspired to eventually hold a seat on the Board, in these days he was glad he hadn't achieved an office position. They were swamped with people asking about what had happened, when the station would be back in business, etc. Endlessly.

Worst of all, he simply didn't care about this any more. He had gotten a tip from one of his more shady sources that Samus had been an important part of the huge battle that had gone on so recently. Word had it that she had destroyed the mysterious station but had been captured. Most likely she was at the Galactic Council central station now.

Most people would never have given one name among thousands any thought. Not David Anez. He had spent hours upon hours searching for her name and eventually found her listed in a few computer logs. She was indeed on the station, and probably not in the best of situations. Which meant she needed rescuing. Samus Aran... needing rescuing.

This was the moment he had waited his entire life for. If he valiantly rescued Samus from the enemy, and it mattered very little to him who the enemy was, she would have to notice him. Where things could go from there tested the limits of his imagination.

But no, he was stuck here doing paperwork for morons. They all acted as though if they had ships or bio suits or food was important. He had a woman to save here! Idiots, all of them. Getting in his way to what was his destiny.

A soft tone indicating someone was at the door broke David from his fantasy. Glancing into the monitor attached to the camera, he discovered that someone he didn't recognize was standing at the door. Not someone he cared about then. But maybe they'd be more exciting than this paperwork. It could be fun to cruelly lead the guy on and then tell him to shove off.

"Come in," David called, tapping a button that unlocked the door. A young man entered and did not sit. Officiously messing with dials as if he was terribly busy, David ignored him for a few moments and then swivelled in his chair to look at him. "What do you want?"

Let him stew over that question for a while. David really didn't care what answer the guy gave, because it would just waste a lot of his time. That would give him an opportunity to size up the guy and figure out the best way to mess with him.

His visitor was someone completely unlike anyone he had ever seen before. Midnight black hair, bright blue eyes, wearing civilian clothing. Such things were alien to David, living in Bounty Hunter HQ. Barely he noticed that the guy was unnaturally muscled, but it was hardly noticeable because he was slender and had an unimpressive aura. More of a scientist type, the kind of guy you expected to constantly get mugged in alleyways. Probably weak and emotionally fragile; easily disturbed. The fun type.

"A ship," the man answered instantly, giving David no more time to consider him.

"Oh, yeah. A ship. I have those just lying around to give away," David shot back, quite proud of himself for that one. "Do you think I just give away space vessels? Do you? It isn't like we're in the middle of a crisis here!"

Inwardly Tal sighed. This was not what he needed. As soon as he got docking codes so he could leave the station quietly, it'd be a simple matter to steal a ship. But until he could do so he had to put up with this guy. And a lot of other morons, in all probability. Even aliens were less dense than some of the guys he'd had to deal with.

"All of you think your problems are so important," David whined, deciding just to vent on this guy. Not like it'd ever matter anyway. "Here I am, wasting precious years of my life, when I could be rescuing Samus! But nooo, you all think you're more important than I am!"

"Actually, I intend to go where Samus is."

"See? That's the problem with all of you, you think your own- wait, what?"

"I want the ship to find Samus." This was a more risky maneuver, Tal acknowledged. Perhaps he could play off this guy's motivations to accomplish his own. Then again, he might seriously regret mentioning Samus with this type. But it was too late now.

"You know where Samus is?" David exploded, leaping from his chair. Quietly Tal wondered if this was such a good idea. At worst he could just kill the guy and try to hack a quick exit for himself.

"On the primary Galactic Council station," Tal answered. It couldn't hurt to tell him that.

"I know that, you idiot! Why are you trying to find her? I should be the one to do that!"

"Then why aren't you?" Tal asked simply. David paused, his anger dissipating as he blinked in confusion.

"Why shouldn't I?" David eventually muttered. He spoke under his breath and to himself, but Tal could still hear him. "Why stay here?"

"Surely you have better things to do with your life than monitoring a docking bay," Tal coaxed softly. David nodded, barely even registering the fact that Tal was the one who had spoken the words.

"Alright," the official snapped, abruptly assuming command. "Let's go save Samus. There's a new Fleeting-class ship in a private hanger not far from here. Fastest standardized ship in the galaxy. The owners have it pretty well guarded, but I could probably find a way to poison all of them. It'd take out nearly half of the HQ, but-"

"I can get you past the guards," Tal interrupted.

"Really?" David asked, raising an eyebrow. "They're bounty hunters."

"Do we really have time to talk?" the other demanded. Best to hurry this along. For now, he'd have to work with this guy. It'd make his own task far more difficult, because he probably shouldn't use any of his special abilities, but he'd have to make do.

"Right! Let's get going!"

Already David was bursting out the door, nearly running in his excitement. Tal followed at a relaxed pace that managed to nearly keep up with David's rush. Letting him stay in the lead, the former human sighed. This was going to be annoying, but if it got him into a ship he didn't care. He did _not_ need this guy following him when they reached the Galactic Council, though. Sighing, Tal flexed and nearly extended blades from his fingertips before remembering his position.

"Here," David said abruptly, throwing something in his direction. Reacting solely on instinct, Tal grabbed it from the air. An energy pistol. Inferior to the one that Samus had given him at one point, but the same as the one that David now held as he explained. "It's a Webley Vickers .88; they're the best small firearm in the galaxy."

They continued on, and Tal quickly considered strategy. If they fought bounty hunters, this guy was probably going to get slaughtered. For the moment, he still needed him, so that had to be avoided. The question was how to finish them off and keep this guy alive without making it obvious what he was. In his hands this energy weapon was completely useless.

But at that moment David veered into an elevator, and Tal barely had the presence of mind to follow. As David pressed a few buttons they began gliding soundlessly through the station. Presumably as close to this private hanger as they could get.

"Who are you, anyway?" David asked him. Tal shrugged, hoping the man would keep his trap shut.

"Oh, no one too important."

"A bounty hunter, maybe? I haven't seen you around here before."

"No. Nothing like that. Just a scientist, really."

"Mm," David responded, scorn barely veiled in his voice. "What makes you think you can fight through these guys?"

"I'm not too bad about this sort of thing," Tal answered noncommittally. At that moment the elevator doors opened, and both of them moved out. They crept through a corridor, Tal letting the other go ahead, and then David abruptly halted.

"Stop," he ordered, unnecessarily and loudly.

"Where are the guards?" a quiet whisper came from behind him. "How close are we to the ship itself?"

"I don't know," David mumbled back. "I kind of just left."

Sighing and rolling his eyes, Tal closed his eyes and smelled the air as best he could. Strangely enough, David reeked. Not in the sense of a traditional smell, but something else not quite in the limits of human senses. Samus had always been a kind of soft, pleasant scent, and most of the bounty hunters smelled metallic. Putting such thoughts aside, Tal managed to catch a whiff of several humans far down the corridor.

Opening his eyes, Tal realized David was already moving forward. Scrambling to catch up, Tal was a second too late to stop David from leaping around a corner and firing wildly. Following with a sigh, Tal had an instant to take in the sight around the corner as he slid around it firing.

There was a large sealed door that seemed characteristic of hanger doors. Around it seven or eight bounty hunters had been lounging but alert. David's wild fire missed all of them, and the next moment they were dodging away. From what glimpses Tal could catch of them, he decided they were low level hired bounty hunters, or at least had suits inferior to Samus'. If they took a job like this, they couldn't be that good.

Jerking an arm around David's neck, Tal jerked him backward a moment before a missile destroyed the floor where he had stood. Landing and letting go of a squirming David, Tal fired as rapidly as possible at the nearest bounty hunter. Misses, unfortunately. His aim was absolutely terrible.

Beside him, David was firing with considerably more accuracy but far less intelligence. Tal lightly kicked him in the back of the leg so he dropped to his knees just before a laser broke through the air above his head. This guy was going to be a serious liability if this fight went on.

Sensing a bounty hunter behind them, about to fire a completely charged shot, Tal acted with full speed, ignoring the consequences. Whirling, he had already moved slightly past the bounty hunter, grabbing his arm around the elbow. It was jerked off course just before the blast was fired, and the sphere of plasma instead plowed into one of the other bounty hunters.

Jerking sharply, Tal snapped the bounty hunter's arm. The man had only an instant to feel pain before an energy pistol was in his face. At point blank range Tal could not possibly miss, and put the man out of his pain almost immediately. Immediately Tal flipped away from his location, narrowing avoided further fire.

Landing some distance away, Tal realized that the bounty hunters were focusing on him almost exclusively now. Apparently they had decided that David really wasn't a threat, which he wasn't. Despite this, the love-struck man was still firing wildly, completely failing to hit anyone.

One bounty hunter brought out two blades from her arms, then rushed forward toward Tal. Along the way she batted David aside, sending him crashing into a wall where a few of the bounty hunters kicked him a bit. Almost instantly she was at close quarters with Tal... which was a terrible mistake. A foot smashed into her chin, sending her off the ground and then stumbling back. Instantly she was swiping at him with the blades, but Tal easily evaded the attacks.

Dropping to the ground to avoid a horizontal slash, Tal spun and smashed a leg into the bounty hunter's kneecap. She stumbled, and in that instant Tal struck. A curled hand viciously struck her throat, breaking parts off her bio armor. At almost the same time Tal's knee smashed into her stomach and immediately after his palm smashed into her chest, driving her backward and partially through the nearby steel wall.

Turning, Tal found that the remaining five bounty hunters were all standing on one side of the room. One of them was tapping a control panel on a nearby wall. The lights in the room dimmed and then went out completely. Curious, Tal waited for what they intended to do. They were in complete darkness, true, but he could still sense their locations, just as he knew where the walls of the room were. Echolocation was a wonderful ability.

"You seem pretty dangerous up close," one of the bounty hunters commented, voice floating from the darkness. "But how well do you think you'll fare when the room is all black and you no longer have an ally?"

Feeling exoskeleton emerge from thin slits in his skin, Tal's only response was to smile slightly.


	26. Worthiness

The trouble with the last chapter was primarily the fact that I don't like David. It is no longer an issue with this and subsequent parts of the story.

I'm glad the last chapter was effective in terms of imagery (I've gotten that comment about the same scene before); I certainly envisioned it that way. As for the comment regard the chapter previous: thank you, I liked that line as well.

Chapter 26: Worthiness

Moaning slightly, David put a hand to his head. So dizzy, so confused... he must have been terribly drunk the previous night. And this bed was- no, wait, this was a floor. Sitting up slowly, he shook his head in an effort to restore his vision. Feeling something sticky on the back of his head, he felt it and discovered he was bleeding.

"Are you alright?"

Confusedly, David glanced toward the voice. For a moment everything was a blur, but then his eyes focused on the man crouching before him. Oh yeah; Tal, that weird new guy. Then apparently they weren't all dead from trying to attack those bounty hunters.

"What happened?" he finally had the presence of mind to mutter.

"You managed to kill most of the bounty hunters, but one of them finally got you over the head. The few remaining I was able to take out," Tal told him. Just let him believe it so they could move on. Just a bit further and then he didn't need this guy any more.

"Oh, I see. Let's go." David got to his feet unsteadily, and would have fallen had not Tal caught him by the shoulder. Apparently some of the bounty hunters had beaten on him a bit while he was on the ground, those cheap bastards. Severe injuries, but nothing he couldn't survive. These foolish bounty hunters were nothing to him. Only Samus was worth his time.

Glancing about the room, David discovered the bodies of the bounty hunters scattered across it. Wow. He hadn't known he was a good enough shot to sear entirely through bodies, rip metal apart or fire mere pinpoint blasts through helmets. If Samus could see this...

They reached the door, which Tal quickly discovered was locked. Considering it was a blast door, it could take a while to break through. That would most likely raise an alarm, too. Though a bit of acid would likely have done the job, that wasn't an option. He glanced toward David, who scoffed and moved forward, rummaging in a pocket.

"Let a pro handle this," David told him, pulling out a small computer chip. He inserted it into the slot meant to hold an identity card and let the program do its work. "In just a few minutes this door will open just like it's supposed to. It's like taking candy from a baby."

Folding his arms and leaning against a nearby wall, Tal waited. His eyes were closed to mere slits, but he could see David shuffling around and scuffing his shoes on the floor. This could be a somewhat long wait, if the door was well guarded. It was common knowledge that all systems could be hacked, but pre-packaged programs could take a long time to do so.

"So why exactly are you going after Samus?" David spoke up, gaze suspicious. Tal sighed. Please, not just making conversation...

"We were working together on something," Tal told him. True enough. But how much chance was there David would just shut up after hearing it? Precious little. "It isn't finished yet."

"Good. You aren't a potential rival, then?"

_Well, what answer do you want to hear?_ "No."

"That's real good, for me and for you," the official smirked. "If you were I might have had to kick your ass. Not that I'd expect much competition from a stupid scientist. Just so we're clear on the fact that I'm the only one getting laid by Samus."

Remaining silent, Tal glanced down at David disdainfully. This guy wasn't even to the point of annoying Tal... he seemed that far beneath him. It was like having a child insult you, it wasn't worth the effort even to respond, nor did you really care. Briefly Tal considered the philosophical ramifications of considering yourself superior to your fellow man - in spirit, if not in body - but let the issue go.

"What's your full name, anyway?" David asked, not letting the conversation die away.

"I told you, my name is Tal."

"Yeah, yeah, I remember. Tell me everything."

"That is everything."

"Sure it is. Tell me the whole thing," the official pressed, now just antagonizing Tal for the fun of it. He really didn't care less what this fool's last name was. Perhaps it would be best to just off him when they reached the ship. "Everybody has a last name. Come on!"

"Tal Aran," he answered, a slight smirk sliding across his face, too subtle for David to catch it. Fine. If this guy was going to be obnoxious about it, he might as well retaliate. His words got the desired result, as David's jaw dropped and sort of just hung. There was a long, stretching moment of silence until eventually the door beeped and slid open. Pushing off the wall, Tal moved through it and David followed numbly.

"So, what are you?" he finally asked, shaking off his confusion. Tal mostly ignored him, instead glancing at the room. As he had hoped, it was the hanger itself and it was completely deserted. Not far from them, the floor abruptly dropped away to a lower level, where the sleek Fleeting-class ship sat, just before the airlock out of the station. "Are you, like, Samus' nephew? Brother? Cousin?"

"Husband," Tal answered, mock absentmindedly. "Sort of, anyway; I'm making this up as I go."

"What the fuck?"

"We haven't actually discussed it," Tal continued, letting him squirm. "I figured that since I don't have a last name I could take hers."

He was about to take another step forward when David sped up and got in his way, spreading his arms out on either side of him. Abruptly Tal realized he might have made a mistake. Perhaps it would have been best to just lie to this idiot long enough to get to the station. But it was too late to go back now, and they were already in the hanger.

"No way," David nearly spat. "That just isn't possible. Samus would never marry some pansy scientist who can't even fire a gun! Why not me?"

"We're not really married," Tal said unhelpfully. If a thing was worth doing... "It's just kind of an assumed thing."

"Even I'm better than you! Why? I'm tougher than you, faster than you, hotter than you and Samus... you're lying! I'm not about to let you get to the Galactic Council!"

In response Tal leapt, exploding off the ground and landing on a nearby wall. He quickly ran sideways along it and then vanished down to the lower level, and the ship. Shocked, David stood stunned for a moment before recovering. Rushing to a nearby computer terminal, he tapped a few keys and then pulled down a large switch.

Everything in the room dimmed, and the lights flickered out. Laughing, David moved to the edge of the higher level and glanced useless about the dark room. The dim emergency lights allowed him to see nothing more than the faint silhouette of the ship on the level below.

"What now?" he asked the emptiness. "Can't get out of the docking bay doors unless you have power, can you? Stupid helpless fool!"

His voice was cut off by a loud sound. David paused, listening closer to the sound, which repeated and grew louder. It was as if massive quantities of air were being forced aside, pushed away. As if... wings.

The next moment Tal burst up from the lower level, broad black wings beating against the air. Regular strokes kept him hovering before David, looming over him. His body was covered by a silhouetted black exoskeleton, his hands could not be seen for the bone claws that surrounded them. Blue eyes glowed fiercely.

"Turn the power back on," Tal commanded, voice rumbling throughout the room. "Now."

They found David alone in the room five hours later. He was lying against a wall, curled against himself and shivering. His eyes were staring blankly off into space and his hands trembling almost violently. When they tried to speak to him about what had happened or why the ship was gone, he only babbled incessantly.

In the days that followed, his friends wondered about the change that had come over David. He was more or less his old self, except for a few peculiarities. They let them go without much thought. Though they always thought it was strange that at the name of Samus Aran he would shudder...

For once everything had gone as planned. Tal smiled slightly and shifted his head back, taking the moment to relax. In just a few more minutes it would be time to make his move. Until then, though, he probably needed to get ready for the intense fighting that was sure to come. At least everything up to this point had gone smoothly.

He'd arrived at the Galactic Council itself in the Fleeting-class ship and managed to dock without any major trouble. Once inside, he'd quietly gotten himself arrested by some corrupted security officers, who had bound him with some pathetic bonds, injected a worthless tranquilizer into his system and were now taking him to their boss. Which was exactly what he wanted them to do. The station was largely a peaceful and bureaucratic place, so anywhere they would hold him had to be close to Samus' location.

This stage of the plan would be the most difficult to pull off. Not without massive numbers of civilian deaths, anyway. Before entering the station, Tal had carefully found a few highly protected maps of the gigantic station and discerned the most important points. If he was correct about where the corruption had spread, it would be possible to be here only a short time and leave quickly with Samus and without causing any undue harm.

Of course, that was assuming that all continued to go well. Gunfire outside the door was not a sign of everything going well. Shifting slightly in the chair he was chained to, Tal glanced about the blank white containment room he had been placed in. There was only one door, and he was facing it.

Outside the door, shots continued to be fired, and Tal discerned what he could from them. Two parties involved, one with many weapons and the other composed of a single person. All the weapons involved appeared to be hand held energy pistols. The solitary side had a far higher caliber weapon, with a silencer. Interesting. In all probability, not Samus.

Plasma fire eventually ceased, and some time after the door began to slide open. Tal watched with mild interest, ready to move at a moment's notice or bring out his exoskeleton. The person who was soon framed in the doorway, however, did not immediately start shooting.

Based on the slick blue body suit she wore, Tal determined she were probably a bounty hunter, minus a bio suit. The real question was what her motivations were; his previous record with bounty hunters involved most of them trying to kill him, but this one had killed the soldiers guarding him. Curious.

She, whoever she was, sauntered closer to him, gaze examining him skeptically. The way she carried herself led Tal to believe she was dangerous. Tossing aside a lustrous black lock with her hand holding a military class gun, she walked around his chair. He did not want her behind him, and kept a careful eye on her. Subconsciously the exoskeleton within his feet formed claws that began sliding out through small slits in his boots...

"So you're the TA1 that everyone keeps talking about," his visitor finally said speculatively, having apparently looked him over to her satisfaction. "Called Tal by some."

"Ever so pleased to make your acquaintance," Tal answered flatly.

"I've heard quite a bit about you," she went on, still moving behind him. "You aren't really anything like the rest of the TA series. Even TA8 was just a bit mad. I guess that they never could really duplicate the original."

"I'm in somewhat of a hurry. Would you care to get to the point?"

"Certainly," she shifted around to face him and dropped to his level beside the chair to look at him in the eyes. "My name is Veronica. I was working for Mr. Divel, but mainly for myself. At this point I think I am better off on my own."

"Hence the dead guards." That answered his questions, anyway.

"Precisely. Mr. Divel's plans are all going to fall, though he himself will probably escape. As soon as I can get off this station, I fully intend to. It would be in my interest to see that he does not get his super army, and under that logic I should shoot you. However, I see no reason that both of us cannot benefit from this entire business."

"Didn't I ask you to get to the point a while ago?" Tal asked. Behind the chair he patiently flexed his hands. Thin blades slid out of his fingers with the motion and quickly resheathed themselves.

A slight smile appeared on Veronica's face. "I like your attitude. And your abilities. Which is why I have a proposition for you: both of us leave this station now, and you become my personal weapon." She drew closer, sliding her arms around him and whispering in his ear. "I could make it quite advantageous for you to do so."

The next instant she coughed up blood. In shock she glanced down at Tal's fingers, out of which had extended blades that were now piercing her chest. Tightening her muscles around his blades, she trapped them there. If she was going to die, he was going down with her. Her other hand swept up, ready to fire a shot through his head-

Tal's other hand clamped around her wrist. It tightened considerably the next moment, making Veronica gasp slightly and drop her gun. She couldn't believe it, couldn't understand. In her entire life, the only person who had been physically stronger than her had been Samus. This TA model wasn't just stronger than her, he had stopped her movement effortlessly. Now as his eyes narrowed her wrist began making slight cracking noises.

Like lightning Tal struck with his other hand as well, ending the bounty hunter's life immediately. Once her muscles loosened, Tal pulled his blades back out of her heart and drew them back into his fingers. Easily ripping through his remaining bonds, he pushed the dying female off him and got to his feet. They had finally arrived.

Coming to a complete stop floating above its magnetic rails, the large shuttle sat hovering in midair, humming slightly. Nothing emerged from it, making the guards as the receiving section glance at each other in confusion. Something had obviously happened on the trip here. Arming their weapons, they began to advance toward the shuttle.

Before they got close to it, the door was abruptly ripped off its hinges and tossed aside. Tal stepped from the shuttle, clad completely in his exoskeleton and looking like a monster stepping from a fairy tale. The next instant he rushed forward, his claws gleaming darkly.

None of them had a chance to fire before he was among them. Slicing through a guard on one side with his right hand, Tal immediately ducked as he ran to avoid plasma fire. Digging the claws on his feet into the floor, he changed direction abruptly, cleaving through another guard. As he continued his spinning motion he dropped into a crouch, both hands whirling in a deadly circle.

Within a matter of seconds the guards were dead. Not pausing even slightly, Tal raced away down the corridor. He knew he was close, but how much time did he have? Where was Samus now?

Everything slowly came into focus. Instantly she became aware that the effects of the drugs had worn off, though she was just now completely recovering. The last thing Samus remembered was Veronica taunting her on her own ship, and now she was here. It had thrown her internal clock out of whack, but she was pretty certain a long time had passed.

Opening her eyes, prepared for anything, Samus discovered she was in a large white room, clad only in her body suit. The ceiling and the floor were identical, and the room was a large rectangle. Two walls were merely blank white, but the other two appeared unusual. The short side at the opposite end had a massive door, and one long side appeared to be covered by layers of grey. Before she could get to her feet, Samus froze at the sound of gears grinding.

The layers of grey began to slowly shift up, revealing that they had merely been parts of an opaque screen. Beyond it was further space, which appeared to be likewise white and blank. She watched edgily as it continued to rise. Beyond it sat a number of men in business suits, calmly sitting in a variety of comfortable chairs. Watching her.

She didn't even bother moving toward them. There would almost certainly be something in her way. An energy barrier or an electric field or something to that effect. Noticing a bit of distortion, Samus looked more closely and realized that there was a plate of glass several feet thick between her and the people.

Glancing at them scornfully, Samus moved to the wall opposite the door and leaned against it, folding her arms and almost closing her eyes. There was nothing she could do against what they might try to do to her, so she might as well rob them of any satisfaction. Through the slits of her vision she examined them further. Many of them were members of the Galactic Council, she noted. Mr. Divel and quite a few other important business people were there as well. She could guess where this was going.

"Gentlemen," a voice said, wafting softly through a speaker near the top of the glass. She recognized it as Mr. Divel's but didn't react. "All of us are here today to witness the end of that which has brought our plans so close to ruin."

Rising from his seat, Mr. Divel strolled before the others, pacing in a measured walk designed to show the proper balance of thoughtfulness and excitement. He felt like grinning but suppressed the urge. Even in his moment of triumph it would not due to show unnecessary emotions. Such would be seen as weakness.

"The name of this threat is Samus Aran," he continued calmly, gesturing to her with a masterful flick of his hand. "One of the most dangerous bounty hunters in the galaxy, as you can see, stripped down to only a human woman. We defeated and captured her, and once she dies there will be no more threats to our plan." Small lies. But they would keep the others feeling secure until it was too late to stop him. "But I determined that this being our moment of triumph, and you being men of good taste, it would be too simple to merely shoot her. Indeed, such methods have proven extremely ineffective in the past. In this situation especially, questions would be asked, and it could shed dangerous light on our operations.

"However, I have a rather simple solution. One that will completely free us of responsibility and clean up the situation. One that will be devious yet also completely effective. To that end, I give you... The Death of Samus Aran."

Sitting down calmly, Mr. Divel steepled his fingers and watched through the glass screen. His timing had been perfect, and it would begin in mere seconds. Though he kept his face a complete mask, he knew he was going to enjoy this. Enjoy this very much indeed.

Opening her eyes, Samus glanced carefully at the massive door opening. Beyond it was nothing but darkness. It opened completely with a slight click, and there was a long silence that followed.

A monstrous roar echoed through the room as a gigantic beast burst from the door, which slammed shut behind it. Leaping off the ground, Samus managed to evade its mad rush, soaring over the attack. She hit the ground hard and rolled to her feet already running. Almost immediately she was on the opposite side of the room and the alien was turning to face her.

"As you can see," Mr. Divel was saying, still infuriatingly calm, "the monster will consume her completely and can always be blamed if questions arise. Alien attacks can be... arranged."

"Is it safe to have one of these beasts within the station?" one of the Galactic Council members asked. Samus mentally cursed at him, barely ducking beneath a massive claw. No, no, it was completely safe. All it really wanted to do was be friends with her. Jumping over a sweeping barbed tail, Samus saw the claw coming for her in midair. Twisting as best she could, she jumped off the hand before the claw struck and landed some distance from the alien, which was already turning to her.

It was a huge beast, mostly red in color. Two eyes gleamed almost intelligently; its hide was covered in tough red scales, its mouth was filled with long razor teeth, spikes covered most of its body. Two wings were folded on its back. With her bio suit, it might have caused her a bit of trouble, but without it...

"Do not fear in the slightest," Mr. Divel was answering the concern. "When the beast was captured we carefully tested the limits of its strength. It cannot possibly break free from its confines."

_How reassuring,_ Samus told him. They probably had a system set up so they could hear her, but there was no point in saying anything. She needed her breath for escaping this thing anyway. Though she knew somewhere back in her mind that she was just delaying the inevitable... but since when had that ever stopped her?

Its claws barely missed her, and slashed some distance through the floor, though it was already pulling its arm away. Grimly Samus realized that Mr. Divel was probably wrong about how safe they were. If even on a indirect attack it was breaking the floor, it could break the glass. Which meant that it had a lot more strength then they thought it did.

Somehow this thought was not exactly comforting. Taking a deep breath, Samus dropped into a ready stance as the alien monstrosity rushed at her with a titanic roar.


	27. Arrangements

This chapter is really just setting up for the next one, which is probably my favorite chapter of the series. Thank you very much for the extensive responses to my previous chapter.

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Chapter 27: Arrangements

Dodging a claw as it rushed toward her, Samus leapt over the tail that immediately followed. Momentarily she was suspended in the air near its head, and then she spun rapidly, smashing two kicks into the creature's jaw. It stumbled slightly, but by the time she hit the ground it was already striking. Though she managed to dodge a sweep of its tail, the alien's bulk struck her, sending her falling in a heap on the floor.

Before she could move its claws slammed down. Surprisingly, they did not hurt her in the slightest... but only because they were pinning her legs and arms, she realized. Great. This creature liked to play with its food. Hopefully it would end relatively soon. The massive head loomed over her, teeth almost gleaming in the light.

Surprisingly, Samus found that she actually had a few regrets. In the majority of her life, she had been ready to die and accepting of that. She had lived so that she would not be troubled by her death. But not now. There were so many things she never had a chance to do with Tal...

But the creature wasn't biting her in half, it was sort of just snuffling her. The massive nostrils continued to sniff at her for some time, leaving Samus only to raise an eyebrow. For a moment the creature did not move, then it opened its maw and began licking her with a large black tongue. It was dry and tickled slightly, if a bit rough.

"How many licks does it take to get to the center of a bounty hunter?" one of the business men snickered amid the laughter of all of them. They seemed to find the fact that her final moments were being dragged out even longer absolutely hilarious.

They were wrong. With almost a sixth sense, Samus realized that their plan had some massive flaw in it. This creature had no intention of eating her, or even of harming her. Could it actually be a very gentle beast? But no, she could sense a terrible amount of violence within it, it was just not directed toward her.

Now it was just looking down at her, uncomfortably close, eyes blinking slowly. It let out a barely audible whine, like an eager puppy would. For a brief moment Samus was stunned, but she found that it wasn't too much of a problem to get over it. There was almost certainly a reason for this, but at the moment that really didn't matter.

"I know you can't understand me," she told it softly, "but I hope you're the smart type of alien. On three let's attack, okay?"

It looked at her, uncomprehending. As she began to count down from three, however, it began to shift restlessly and lash its tail through the air. Perhaps it could sense that she was about to do something. When Samus began to move, the huge claws pulled away from her, and the creature leapt away.

Glass caved away before it, shattering throughout the room and the neatly suited men, who were now screaming. Running directly in its wake, Samus jumped through the hole it had created. Wildly attacking, the beast had already killed many of the bureaucrats, though it didn't seem to have a particular goal. One tried to pull out a gun to fire upon it but was smashed by a massive claw through a wall.

Seeing Mr. Divel fleeing on the far side of the room, Samus quickly ran to the gun lying on the ground. Kicking it into the air and catching it, Samus fired after him. Surprisingly, Mr. Divel rolled just as she fired, and her first shots missed. Before she could fire on him more seriously, a door clapped down behind him. She'd never catch him now.

Letting the issue go, Samus instead contented herself with picking off the remainder of the corruption in the Galactic Council. She could deal with Mr. Divel later. One by one, the parts of his plan were falling around him. If he had nothing, he could not be too dangerous. Not that she was about to let him off.

For a moment the large alien moved aimlessly, as if unsure what to do. Before it had seemed to have a specific purpose, and now it was adrift. It glanced at her, seemed not to care and then let out a roar and broke through a door. Soon it was lost in the corridors.

Moving at a more sedate pace, Samus found a computer terminal that wasn't completely smashed and looked for her bio suit's energy signature. It was found relatively easily. The computer indicated that it had been transported to a specific room and then never picked up. Veronica's room, most likely. What could have happened to her?

Picking up speed, Samus moved toward what were apparently Veronica's temporary quarters. The door was locked, but that problem lasted only as long as it took to pull a trigger. Blowing through the door, Samus entered the room and discovered it was completely unoccupied. Good.

On the opposite side of the room her bio suit rested. Samus let out a slight sigh of relief when she realized that it had not been tampered with. If she ever ran into Veronica again she was just going to kill her instantly, if only for threatening to mess with her bio suit.

Stepping to the suit and quickly beginning to fuse it together around her, Samus considered her next steps. Now that she had her suit, she needed to acquire the rest of her things: her ship and Tal. The former was probably still in a docking bay and would need to be found quickly; the latter could handle itself and would show up at an opportune time.

Bringing the bio suit completely online, Samus stretched just a bit and then left the room. Much better, as usual. There weren't very many reasons she'd want to leave her bio suit. The hallway outside was as ordinary as all the other hallways. But being in this secret area of the station, it probably contained better sources of information. Perhaps where to find her ship.

Eventually she did find it, without too much difficulty. It was registered completely legally in one of the civilian docking bays, just under different identity codes. However, it was just a low level diplomatic procedure, and faking high level access wasn't too difficult. Just the type of thing a bounty hunter could reasonably use if taking a job for the Galactic Council. Keeping the maps in mind, Samus moved toward the hanger.

That was how they operated, she reflected. Not so much through illegal means, though they certainly used those excessively, but mostly through simple, ordinary methods. All the corrupted members of the Galactic Council had been elected as legally as anyone else. Of course, they were funded by special interest groups and employed all tactics, just like any politician. It was truly a wonder that evil could work so effectively through good. Then again, perhaps it was not a wonder at all.

She boarded a mostly empty shuttle that took her back to the normal part of the station. There she found another shuttle that would take her far closer to her own docking bay. This one was filled with people, all going various places and looking quite busy.

None of them talked to her, mercifully. But few people were likely to approach a focused looking bounty hunter in a heavily armored machine of destruction. Standing in the back of the shuttle, Samus just waited for it to reach her own stop. Around her people officiously wrote on clipboards, made calls on portable communications devices, spoke in quite tones. Business as usual.

A group of wide-eyed schoolchildren got on at the next stop, and Samus internally winced. For one at the innocence pervading them that was so alien, and also because merely being in her presence put them in danger. Hopefully Mr. Divel would not try to kill her. Civilian deaths always annoyed Samus.

Their teacher told them a sugar-coated story about their government. Glossing over the people killed in the creation of the Galactic Council, the planets destroyed under a philosophy of preemption, the brutal politics that had shaped the Council into the machine that it was. But they were children... they had only so long.

Swiftly the shuttle reached a point quite close to the docking bay her ship was held in. The public transportation was really quite excellent here. Apparently a council member named Stevenson had put through the legislation that made these quite common. She exited the doors, and was given plenty of room in doing so. Over her shoulder she noticed a little girl watching after her with adoring eyes. Poor kid.

This part of the station was filled with bustling crowds. Not good. It quickly became obvious, however, that nothing was going to attack her. Instead Samus merely focused on reaching her goal as soon as possible.

It was surreal, unnatural. Just walking through these crowds of people all intently focused on themselves. None of them knew that most of the Galactic Council had been slaughtered. They were ignorant of the corruption that had spread throughout their system. Little did any of them know that death and chaos reigned further up the station. Hopefully they would never know.

Finding her docking bay, Samus discovered it was locked to public access. It took little effort to guess the reason. Instead of breaking or hacking the door in front of everyone, she prowled around the hanger to a better spot. There was a large library, and it was of course completely empty.

Finding her way to the back, Samus pretended to be reading a random novel while scanning maps of the hanger her ship was in. It also served as a docking bay, but one of the more protected ones. From the locked public door there was a fairly long hallway, then a large room, then the hanger itself. At the moment she was just to the side of the middle of the hallway.

So be it, then. Setting the book back down on the shelf, _Legend of Link_, it appeared, she glanced toward the walls. Checking to make sure no one was watching her, Samus brought out a laser knife and began cutting a hole in the wall. That would be incredibly obvious later on, but for now all she cared about was speed. Taking away the section of the wall and replacing it behind her, she did a half-hearted welding job. Good enough for a few hours.

The corridor was completely empty; the locked door at the other end was doing its job. Moving to the door attaching to the chamber, Samus switched to infrared mode and scanned it. A fair number of people in it, all standing very still. Checking for energy readings she discovered all of them were packing military-grade weaponry. Great.

Stepping away from the door, Samus began charging her right cannon to full power. Upon finishing she fired the massive sphere of plasma, which tore through the door and blasted into the next room. With her left arm Samus fired a grappling hook. It trailed just in the wake of the former attack, clamping onto the opposite wall and immediately pulling her.

Sailing through the air, Samus picked off a few of the guards with her right arm. Touching the wall, she instantly slid down it to avoid fire in return. After knocking off a few more of the guards, she was forced to roll left as they changed the direction of their fire.

Hand springing across the floor, she managed to get good footing for the first time. Immediately she fired at full speed, dropping the rest of the guards, seconds before a few of them reached for an alarm. Then abruptly the room was quiet, smelling with the scent of burnt air and scorched metal.

Calmly lowering her guns, Samus moved toward the next door. There would probably be guards in the next area, too, if she knew her opponents' strategy. Most likely her ship was the only one in the hanger. Blasting the door aside, Samus entered.

Immediately she was on her guard at the sight that greeted her. There had indeed been a heavy guard present, but no longer. They and their weapons lay scattered about the floor, and massive portions of the floor and walls had been ripped away. Amidst all the chaos, her ship stood untouched and gleaming. Either there were aliens here, or...

"Samus." He stepped calmly from behind her ship, nodding in greeting. She could barely see his eyes through his exoskeleton, but she knew that they had lit up slightly.

"Tal." They approached each other calmly, both monitoring the surrounding area. Stopping a short distance apart from each other, neither spoke, just watching the other for some time. Eventually Samus smiled slightly. "It's good to see you again."

"Same here." He loved to see that smile. The expression was extremely rare on Samus' face, but when it appeared you always knew it was real. It was worth meeting her here just to earn that smile.

"Now what?" Samus asked. "Mr. Divel is still alive higher up, but pretty much everyone else involved is dead. I think he'll try to retaliate, but there's no way he can get to us before we leave, if that's what we want to do."

"That's a possible route. But I was also thinking we might want to just finish this once and for all." Tal retracted part of his exoskeleton long enough to pull something black and rectangular from his pocket. He held it up between two fingers and smiled slightly. "Everything. We've put so much work into this it'd be a shame not to put it to good use."

"I'm liking that idea." Samus turned to move from the room and Tal matched pace with her. "I have a suspicion Mr. Divel will be trying to keep himself from any culpability, so he might be going the same place we are. If we run into him don't hesitate to kill him; most of his cohorts are already dead anyway and I really don't have to worry about a murder rap."

"Glad to hear you handled things mostly yourself. All I had time to do was secure the ship area and make sure it was off limits to basically anyone. When we need to go back to it we can be pretty certain it'll still be there." As they passed into the normal area of the station Tal completely retracted his exoskeleton.

"While we're going," Samus continued softly, voice nearly lost in the chatter surrounding them, "I have a question to ask."

"Go ahead. I don't need to keep any secrets."

"There was a pretty big alien they tried to make kill me." She paused as they entered the shuttle and simultaneously moved to the back. "It didn't. Helped me, actually. You wouldn't have had anything to do with that, would you?"

"Ah. It actually worked." Tal closed his eyes slightly and kept speaking to her in a barely audible voice. "Yes, that was me. I had quite a few plans and it appears one was actually helpful. They were trying to find aliens, so I sent one in my control with orders to let itself be captured and then help you."

"They can understand orders that complex?" Samus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Mostly... no. If you're very simplistic and repeat things they can follow longer orders. But it actually just had to find your scent. I marked you with one of my hormones earlier; none of the aliens I control will bother you. I didn't really ask but I hope you don't mind."

"Considering it saved my ass I'm not complaining," Samus told him. "What's that alien going to do now?"

"Leave the station. They really don't like people or traditional buildings. We shouldn't have to worry about it."

"Good. This is our stop." Both of them left the shuttle, and they were the only people who did so. As soon as the doors closed both of them picked up the pace to a light run.

"I trust you know where you're going?" Tal asked, voice changing in mid-sentence as his exoskeleton surrounded his mouth.

"I have a pretty good idea," she answered. "Mr. Divel is really a secondary goal; it's tough to know where he will be. Most likely he'll make his presence known by attacking us. But he really isn't our concern any more. All he has left are some troops and some political power. We can deal with both of those."

"It works," Tal nodded, sliding back slightly to let her lead. "With any luck we can get out of this without any further conflict."

"Hopefully. But have we ever had any luck in this entire mess?"

"At least some," Tal laughed softly. "You saved my life and we found each other again. I guess the true test of luck will be in how all of this turns out."

"Right," Samus agreed, slowing as they reached another shuttle. "This one should take us to the highest political levels. We'll skip the stop by the Assembly and go straight toward the stop by the Galactic Council chambers."

Merely nodding, Tal stepped into the shuttle as the doors opened. Both of them waited for some time for the computer to decide there were no further passengers, and then the machine took off down its magnetic tracks. Arming her weapons out of habit, Samus remained by the door, ready to leave as soon as necessary.

It was a short time later that Tal's head abruptly snapped to the side. Raising an eyebrow, Samus watched him silently, knowing he must have sensed something. Moving slowly to the back of the shuttle, he put his ear to the side for a moment, then stood and turned to her.

"We're being followed," he told her, "by several things with wings."

"How fast are they going?"

"Faster than this shuttle." Pulling out his data storage device, Tal flipped it across the shuttle and Samus caught it easily. "I'll take care of it."

"Feel free. Meet by the shuttles or at the ship."

With a slight wave, Tal ripped open the back door to the shuttle and leapt out into the tunnels speeding around him. He vanished to a mere speck before he even touched the ground. Ignoring the new wind resistence, Samus continued to wait for the shuttle to reach its next stop.

Landing and immediately back flipping, Tal did several hand springs backward to nullify his momentum. Now stationary, he leapt to the ceiling and dug in the claws on his feet. Folding his arms and hanging from the ceiling, he calmly waited for them to appear.

Very soon they flew into sight, wings barely flapping as nega photons sent them hurtling through the air. Three of them, Tal identified; all of them were clad in full exoskeleton armor. The leader of the group failed to slow down in time, and Tal clothes lined him before he could pass. As he was sent flipping to the tracks below, the other two slowed to a halt.

Immediately detaching from the ceiling, Tal dropped toward the ground. As he fell, he fired two brief shots from his hands, knocking away another attacker. Touching off the ground, Tal hurled himself through the air, approaching the third with surprising speed. In midair his claws slashed violently, shattering his opponent's defenses and sending him lifeless toward the ground.

Whirling, Tal smashed a foot into the side of the face of the exoskeleton flying up toward him, and brought it all the way down to the ground, embedding its head into the steel. These ones were stupid, he noted, decidedly inferior to the other members of the TA series that he had fought. Perhaps these were the failed attempts to copy his own genetics.

The remaining fighter was already attacking, a claw slashing for the back of his head. Not bothering to turn, Tal blocked it with a forearm, then whirled, attacking with his other hand. Retreating a few steps along the magnetic rail, his opponent evaded the attack and then struck again. It kept up an offensive, and abruptly Tal leapt away from it.

For a moment the twisted creature roared in triumph... and then the next shuttle smashed into its back, almost immediately bringing it down to the magnetic rail. Moments later Tal calmly landed in the center of the track. At this rate he would probably be able to catch up to Samus and-

His hand snapped up behind the back of his head, catching four long spikes that had been flying toward it. Slowly Tal turned, to look toward the opponent he knew was standing some distance from him in the center of the tracks. Had he failed to kill one of the three? No; not likely.

This being was obviously not a failed experiment like the others. It stood calmly, with its arms folded, exoskeleton covering it completely. Light glinted off the light shade of red its armor was composed of, and glittered off dangerous looking spiked claws. In its hands it held several more long spikes. A massive wingspan arched behind it.

"And so we finally meet," the creature spoke, affirming Tal's suspicions. "I have wanted this day to come."

"You are part of the remaining TA series, then?" Tal asked calmly.

"Indeed. Only four of us remain, brother." It's eyes tightened. "I intend to insure by today that there is only one."

"It seems that you cannot decide if you wish to work for Project Darklight or against it," Tal commented, flipping the caught spikes around his claws casually.

"No," his opponent hissed, "I care little for it. What I want to do now is prove my superiority! No longer will I be just a clone, I will be the master of the original!"

Tal merely raised an eyebrow.

"You, TA1, have always been the original model, the goal to which all of us have strived. But no more. I injected into my body all the genes from all the new models, of every variety. Because I survived, I have become the ultimate in our kind. I am no longer an insignificant duplicate of you, I have surpassed you! When your blood covers this floor I will have secured my place as TA0!"

"That is what you seek, is it?" Tal asked. Abruptly his wings seemed to explode from his back, arching massively on either side of him. In his hands the spikes snapped into splinters that rained to the floor. "Bring it on."

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This story is really very close to its end… 


	28. Epic Level

This is the last normal chapter, actually. This is the second major work that I have finished on and again the feeling at the end is a bit strange. As before, I find that I have relatively little to say. I hope thatthis is enjoyable and provides resolution.

I would describe TA0 as obsessed, not a lunatic. An argument could be made that obsession is lunacy, of course. Meanwhile, I apologize for using the wrong "ensure."

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Chapter 28: Epic Level

Finally the shuttle opened at the proper spot. It was broadcasting an annoying message about the door needing repair, but Samus ignored it. Stepping calmly from the shuttle, she moved forward. The corridors here were quiet and clean, as if nothing of the battles elsewhere on the station had touched them.

Could it really be this easy? Samus calmly moved down the hallways, toward her goal. Could all of this really come down to just a final corridor? It would be terribly ironic if that was all it took. After everything that had happened, now it would end quietly like this.

Not that she minded. There was enough action in her life regardless, and she had the feeling it would continue even after this issue was finally closed. No need for any more battles to take place.

"Stop right there!"

Sighing, Samus turned slowly to face the speaker. In the large rectangular room behind her there stood quite a number of exoskeleton clad creatures. Most of them seemed to be lurking about restlessly, but two stood completely still, watching her. It was to them that her eyes immediately were pulled.

"TA models, then?" Samus asked calmly.

"The same," one snapped, in a female voice.

"Now get your hands in the air," the other ordered, male this time. "Don't try anything funny."

"Certainly," Samus told them pleasantly. She slowly and unthreateningly raised her arms... then brought them down and fired solid plasma into the group. Both the TA exoskeletons managed to weave out of the way of the attacks, but a few of the failed experiments were smashed backward.

Shifting the alignment of her jet packs, Samus put on a brief boost of speed that sent her sailing sideways. As she landed on the wall, she let loose two missiles that exploded in the center of the room, perhaps destroying some of the more lowly exoskeletons; it was difficult to be certain about it.

Something slashed at her from her right, and Samus intercepted the bladed hand as it moved toward her head. Not a TA, she realized as she grabbed the arm and hurled its owner into another attacking alien. Turning off her boots' electromagnets, Samus dropped to the ground just before concentrated nega photons destroyed the wall behind her.

By this point the smoke had cleared in the room, giving all of them an opportunity to size up the situation. There were three failed experiments remaining. One of the TA models was in the center of the room, having attacked. The other was by a computer terminal, tapping several keys. The doors on either side of the room closed completely. So they were pretty confident about their victory then... with just five to one odds?

Leaping to the side to avoid several spikes thrown in her direction, Samus launched a spike grappling hook. It embedded itself through one of the lesser exoskeletons. When she retracted the chain it was jerked lifelessly forward, but she was also propelled across the room. She used the movement to smash a kick into the male TA.

Landing, Samus swept the legs out from under the nearest exoskeleton. The third leapt upon her back almost immediately, and she struggled to remove it for an instant. Then she realized the female TA was rushing toward her, aiming to attack at close range. Her hand was actually not covered in a claw, which made Samus extremely suspicious...

Jerking her head to the right, the bounty hunter narrowly avoided the hand touching the front of her helmet. Instead it gripped the head of the partial alien on her back. There was a momentary pause, and then pressure fell from her back as it dropped lifelessly. Whatever she could do with her hands, it seemed pretty dangerous.

Not that it mattered while Samus' elbow smashed into her stomach. As she doubled over, Samus smashed the gun end of her arm into the TA model's face. Even as one opponent fell back through the air, Samus fired point blank into the other alien that was leaping toward her back. Both of them crashed on opposite sides of the room.

Turning to the lesser TA, which was just leaping off the floor, Samus fired on it with a partially charged laser. It was enough to break the creature's weak exoskeleton and destroy its heart instantly. Then there were only the two of them remaining.

Claws slashed across her back the next instant, making Samus drop forward painfully. Immediately she switched to ball mode and rolled, getting away from the female TA. They were pretty tough and fast, actually. Unrolling, Samus fired several shots after her-

The other former human caught her from the side, propelling her to the ground and smashing her into the steel floor. Immediately he leapt away, avoiding Samus' reactive shot. Attempting to move, Samus discovered she was fairly stuck in the floor. She could get out... but not before the female TA got to her, claws retracted and hand burning dangerously with nega photons. In that case, isolate the suit's functions, create a shell, prepare a power surge and wait.

Her opponent's hand clamped down on her helmet. The instant it did so electricity burst out over Samus' suit, crackling across the metal and electrocuting the TA before she could move much further. It blasted her back, where she lay smoking on the ground and shaking slightly as her nerve endings fired.

Breaking out of the ground, Samus back flipped to evade the almost immediate slash from the other TA. Instead of fighting she broke backward, getting out of his range. She had taken a moderate amount of damage, Samus calculated, and her jet packs were offline. Best to finish this quickly.

Running along one wall of the room, Samus glanced over her shoulder slightly. It had been a long time since she'd had an opportunity to use this weapon. There simply weren't many extremely cold planets with caverns any more. But this room was closed enough and air conditioned enough that it would do.

Gritting his teeth, the TA sped up, starting to gain ground on the fleeing bounty hunter. One of her arms seemed to hang by her side, he noticed, steam issuing from it. The other, unfortunately, was firing at him. Evading the shots, he continued following as best he could.

His partner was getting to her feet near the center of the room, and then she joined in the chase. Reaching a wall, Samus briefly ran along it, then moved beside the next wall. But it was only a matter of time. Their death trap was steadily closing in; the female TA was moving toward Samus from the opposite direction.

Just before they converged upon her, Samus broke to the side. They narrowly avoided colliding with each other and continued to pursue her as she ran across the room. Now, however, both of them were firing upon her, and though Samus fired back, she couldn't match their combined firepower. She was being slowly herded into one corner of the room, however slippery she tried to be about it. With only one arm, she didn't stand a chance.

Eventually one of his shots connected, not strong enough to deal much damage but with enough force to send her tumbling into one of the walls. As she crashed into the wall one of her hands moved, and three small devices were hurled. His partner caught him and jerked him back just before two of the devices exploded in a fiery wall in front of Samus.

The bombs dealt minor damage to both TA models, but not enough to stop them from eliminating their target. One device remained on the floor, and it exploded a second later, sending a shower of white through the area. It felt like no more than mist, so he assumed that the last bomb had been a dud... or an attempt to escape!

Looking for her scent instead of her body, he discovered her darting away from the corner. Moving with full speed, he managed to trip her up as she tried to pass. Though she managed to catch herself, she still struck the opposite wall and was merely pinned in another corner by both of them.

"There is no way we'll let you leave this room," he hissed triumphantly.

"You can't escape," his partner agreed, retracting her claws.

"On the contrary," Samus answered them, slowly getting to her feet. Abruptly her eyes flashed dangerously. "_You_ can't escape!"

Both gaped, and in that instant Samus raised her guns. The edges glowed with a strange blue light, and the next instant discharged another chemical. In midair a vicious reaction occurred, violently changing something. Sensing danger, the female TA jerked away immediately, but her arm was still caught in the reaction.

Landing on the opposite side of the room, the female TA immediately cried out in pain. Glancing down at her arm, she discovered it was encased in a massive block of ice. So then, that meant that the bounty hunter had been...

Samus was already moving. The male TA had one of his legs encased in ice, which kept him firmly rooted to the ground. Ducking underneath his awkward kick, Samus fired another ice beam up, freezing the rest of him. From behind, her other opponent was attacking; Samus smacked her aside and then fired a fully charged plasma shot into the large block of ice, shattering the male TA completely.

Whirling, Samus watched her remaining opponent. The former human was up against a wall, shuddering slightly. Seeing Samus turn, she let out a roar and attacked. Massive claws ripped from her as she charged, aiming to sever Samus limb from limb.

Unloading from both barrels, Samus froze her completely, leaving one corner of the room a massive block of ice. After, there was a long, frosty silence as Samus stood alone on the battlefield. The air around her was filled with icy crystals, and there was ice coating much of the walls. But there was no time for contemplation now.

Breaking into a run, ignoring the damage she had taken, Samus blew away the door and moved into the next hallway. Time to end this.

* * *

Ducking beneath a claw swipe, Tal immediately darted a claw forward toward his opponent's knee. Jerking his leg out of the way, TA0 swung it back the next second, aiming to smash Tal in the head. Weaving to the left of the attack, Tal used the momentum to bring his other leg up to smash into TA0's side.

Catching the leg before it could strike him, the other exoskeleton brought a claw down at Tal's leg, aiming to break it. Jerking away, Tal twirled back through the air and then landed. They faced off for some time, both watching for the other's attack.

With a slick motion TA0 pulled several spikes to his hand and hurled them. Before they were midway across the distance between them, however, Tal retaliated with a bolt of nega photons. His energy consumed the spikes immediately and struck TA0 in the shoulder. The red armored warrior stumbled back, then growled angrily.

Exploding off the ground, TA0 retreated to a nearby wall. There he paused a moment before blowing and unleashing a blazing column of fire. Let Tal try to overpower _that_! Eventually he cut off the stream, not wanting to waste any more of his nega photons than were necessary.

Only briefly did he see Tal before him, emerging from the shadows, apparently unharmed. Then his opponent spat and dropped back away. A clear liquid struck TA0's arm before he could begin to react. The next instant the acid began to eat away at his arm and TA0 gasped in pain. With a loud cry he sent the acid bursting away from his arm.

Folding his wings, TA0 plummeted down toward Tal, who stood calmly watching him from above. Striking with his full might, TA0 forced his claws down. Tal's claws rose abruptly, blocking his attack. The two forced their strengths against each other for a moment, then TA0 flew back with a flap of his wings. Airborne, he began firing short bursts down at Tal. Narrowing his eyes, Tal flapped his own wings and rose to meet him.

They arced and curved, slashing at one another in a deadly but graceful dance. Barrel-rolls, loops and maneuvers impossible with only wings were executed, neither able to gain an advantage over the other. Eventually, however, TA0 managed to just barely touch one of Tal's wings, and it pushed him off balance.

Instantly TA0 struck, claw slashing and deflecting off the black exoskeleton. The blow sent Tal down, and TA0 swooped after him. In midair he gripped both of Tal's forearms, then sent him bashing all the way into the ground. Embedded some distance into the steel, Tal hissed slightly in pain.

TA0 propelled himself over Tal, aiming to smash his legs into his opponent's face. Before he could do so, Tal's wing clapped together around TA0, throwing him off balance. In that instant Tal broke free from his grip and burst away down the tunnel. Angrily landing, TA0 watched his opponent on the opposite side of the tracks intently. He did not see the glowing lights of the shuttle behind him.

Mere fractions of a second before the metallic craft hit him, TA0 whirled, grabbing the front of the shuttle with both hands while digging his claws into the metal at his feet. Instead of smashing into him, the shuttle flipped over him. Moving with it, TA0 brought it smashing down toward Tal.

Catching the shuttle with one hand, Tal noted that it was unoccupied. _How fortunate,_ he thought, his other hand moving toward his mouth...

A raging inferno ripped through the shuttle and encompassed a shocked TA0. He fell backward, flaming slightly, and crashed heavily onto the tracks. For a moment he lay silently, then he burst to his feet, roaring in anger and sending melted metal and flames flying away from him. Seething, he locked eyes with Tal.

"I believe you were talking about a massive superiority earlier," Tal commented easily. "I trust you're just playing around with me then or something?"

"Shut up!" TA0 roared. "I'll prove my superiority with this!" The next instant he launched himself forward, metal-like blades exploding from his fingers. Tal retracted his claws as well and brought out shimmering blades.

They clashed between them, sparks flying from the biological metal grating on biological metal. Immediately both struck again, blades flying between them dangerously. Both formed shimmering arcs around themselves as they struck at each other, battering at the other's shield of slashes. Blows passed between them like lightning, raining down on the other. It seemed as if it could go on forever, and then it came to a sudden halt.

"It... it can't be," TA0 rasped painfully. Unbelieving, he glanced down at the claw that was now passing through his right lung. Horrified he glanced at Tal, unable to come to grips with the fact that he had been bested. The next instant his eyes narrowed and he let out an inhuman roar. Jerking off the blade, he slashed down at Tal, aiming to lop his head off his shoulders in a single swipe-

Emerging swiftly from Tal's back, a long spike broke through TA0's wrist moments before his hand struck Tal's neck. Gaping in pain, TA0 instead swept a kick at his opponent's side. Bending a knee, Tal intercepted the blow with a spike that emerged from his exoskeleton and speared TA0's leg. Shaking, too filled with rage to feel pain, TA0 did begin to understand fear as he realized that he was effectively pinned in place and that Tal could just as easily stop any other attempts he made.

"I think I know what your problem is," Tal commented, face expressionless behind his exoskeleton. "You tried to use the genetics of others to make yourself powerful. But that cannot match developing your own abilities. Instead of searching for power outside yourself, look to what you have already been given."

His cupped hands swung up to nearly touch TA0's face, nega-photons so concentrated within them that they seemed to glow with blue flame. There was a blinding flash that transcended anything so lowly as pain, and then TA0 knew no more.

* * *

Leaning heavily against the wall, Samus waited patiently for the doors to open. They did so with the slight hiss of hydraulics. Tal was already there, waiting for her calmly. His exoskeleton looked a bit battered, and he was bleeding and slightly scorched in several places, but to her he had never looked better.

"Is it finished?" he asked. She flashed him a weary but triumphant smile.

"It's over. I made sure that our names will never be mentioned in all of this, so we should have actual peace."

They both began moving back to the ship, supporting each other though they could both have truly walked on their own. But sometimes, Samus reflected, that wasn't really what mattered. There were other things.

"The most exciting part of this might be over," she commented, "but the important part is just beginning."

Tal smiled slightly. "I hear that. Let's go."

* * *

Angrily Mr. Divel crushed his crystal cup in one hand, not caring that water was spilling to the floor and that some glass dust was in his hand. So his last remaining minions had failed. Details were scarce, but he felt certain it was Samus and that blasted rebel TA model. It was probably the only one left, now. If he wanted to reach the next phase of his plan, he would need to capture that creature somehow. How annoying that it was being wasted in the presence of a bounty hunter.

But for now that was none of his concern. There were more important things to do. Reaching into a desk, Mr. Divel pulled out a large black gun. Reloaded it for good measure, he slipped it inside his suit coat and began walking. Best to take care of this himself.

Dead bodies were beginning to be found. Destroyed shuttles were beginning to be noticed. Reports were being checked. The Assembly was beginning to ask questions that his constituents could not stop. Another senator was beginning to speak seriously about a vote of no confidence, and they would soon discover that most of the Galactic Council was dead.

Almost... he intended to ensure that all of it was finished. Mr. Stevenson was helpful to have around as a scapegoat, but now he would only be a liability. But dead men could tell no tales, even the unthreatening ones that Mr. Stevenson had to tell.

Plans were running through Mr. Divel' head like a macabre stream. Some shadowy para-governmental organization would have to be responsible for all this. Conspiracy buffs would embrace it immediately. Mr. Stevenson would be involved in some unknown manner, which is why they would discover him shot to death. The alien that had been brought to the station had not been done so in his name... perhaps that organization could be framed.

He was obviously extremely close to the situation, and people would notice. Best to write a broken and tearful speech in which he tried to remain calm and leader-like but broke down and revealed his inner feelings. If he shot himself in a nonfatal place few would dare question him.

Then he could make his best effort to truly erase corruption from the Assembly. Nearly all of his constituents there could be sacrificed and arrested. It would be little trouble to replace them with a new wave of corruption. He would, of course, refuse the promotion to the Galactic Council. That would buy him a few more years.

For now, that would be enough. Nothing would be able to touch him, and he would come off as a public hero. Once people had that image of him in their minds, he could get away with nearly anything. It was too late for Samus or anyone else to stop him. Later there would be time to plan how he could continue the Darklight Project, but for now he had to focus on his objective at the moment.

Mr. Stevenson's quarters were directly ahead. Reaching the door, Mr. Divel overrode the lock and entered quietly. He discovered himself in a dimly lit, softly designed room. It was an office, but appeared more like a home. That was Mr. Stevenson's image, after all. Speaking about this councilman's death would have to particularly choke him up.

He could see the man himself sitting in a high backed black chair. Currently he was mostly turned away, staring off into a chemically controlled fire crackling in a replica of a traditional fireplace. His body was slightly slumped, and it spoke of his immense weariness. Even as Mr. Divel watched, the man let out a soul rending sigh.

"Hello, Mr. Divel," Mr. Stevenson said sadly, without turning.

"You know why I am here," Mr. Divel told him coldly. "Turn around and make this look proper."

"Why should I listen to you any more?" Mr. Stevenson asked, his voice dull.

"I can make your life more miserable than you can understand," Mr. Divel hissed. "If you play into my plan you'll die almost instantly. You should be honored to be one of the components of my final escape plan."

"I'm tired," Mr. Stevenson answered him. "I've seen far too much in this life."

"That's right," Mr. Divel agreed soothingly. "Why not let it all go? Just let it end now, and drift into history as a wise but unfortunately slain leader."

Abruptly the chair spun around, and Mr. Divel saw Mr. Stevenson moving before he heard the shot. For a long moment he was stunned, unable to move and barely to breath. Slowly he absorbed the reality of what had happened. Mr. Stevenson still had his hands raised around his gun, his eyes hard. Briefly Mr. Divel put a hand to the bloody hole in his chest before he collapsed to the ground.

"H-h... how?" he gasped, forcing back blood. He had to know how his plan had failed, how he had been undone. Mr. Stevenson slowly got up from his desk like a very old man and stood over him. His eyes, however, were filled with life.

"You thrived for a very long time on a corrupt, sickened galaxy," Mr. Stevenson began slowly, glancing down at the dying man on the floor sadly. "But not all of the galaxy is corrupted. Not everyone is evil. And those things finally caught up with you.

"I had always wanted to believe there were still good people left in the galaxy, but I had always thought I was simply an old fool. But I was proved wrong." Mr. Stevenson reached into a pocket and pulled out a black rectangle that Mr. Divel realized with horror was a disk. "Someone came here and explained everything, explained all that had happened, explained what you were going to do.

"And in that moment I knew I couldn't give up on the galaxy. So you were beaten, Evans. Beaten by a tired old man." Those words echoed in Mr. Divel' mind as it faded away, as he lost his grip on the life remaining in him. _Beaten by a tired old man..._

Heavily Mr. Stevenson sat down at his chair. He dropped his gun to the floor and buried his head in his hands. This next part was going to be the most painful, but also the most necessary for healing. Hopefully all that had been destroyed could somehow be restored. All he could do was hope, and work.

"Put me on," he said softly, tapping a key on his desk. There was an answer he barely heard and then his room began to hum. Lights shifted and changed to the perfect lighting, a camera focusing on him began to warm up. Straightening, Mr. Stevenson put aside his weariness and straightened his tie. He waited motionless until a small green light appeared, signaling he was being broadcast as planned.

"Citizens of the galaxy," he said slowly. "Today, I have an extremely important announcement to make. I have to tell you the truth..."

* * *

There is also an epilogue, which I will post immediately, instead of making all of you wait another week. You can review both if you like...


	29. Epilogue: Basis of Humanity

Note that I updated the previous chapter at the same time.

* * *

Epilogue: Basis of Humanity

Filling up another glass as slowly as possible, the bartender passed it down to the patron. He picked up a glass and began to polish it needlessly. But he was running out of methods to stall, so he might as well go now. Setting down the glass, he moved a short distance down the bar toward the new customer.

"What'll it be?" he grated. She had been intently examining a schematic of something that resembled a power grid, and now glanced up at him, long blond hair falling away from her face. Pretty good looking... and her orange bio suit matched the profile exactly. There was no point checking it any further. Before she could answer he casually put a hand to the counter, tapping a small button beneath it.

"Two of the standard," she answered flatly, slapping several small chips on the counter. "One for me and one for the guy at the end of the counter."

Glancing down the bar, the bartender set his eyes upon a young-looking man reading from a portable computer and casually flexing his other hand.

"Bit young for you, ain't he?" the bartender started to say before gun appeared in his face.

"I would describe the enjoyment I would get from shooting you as medium to high," the bounty hunter told him dryly. From her tone, she would do it, too. If even half the rumors about Samus Aran were true...

"Whatever," he answered, as coldly as possible. He filled the order and delivered it to both places. The younger guy just took it absent-mindedly and continued reading. While nearby, the bartender caught a glimpse of his screen and discovered it was a high-level text on biochemistry. A student, maybe? What would he be doing here?

While pretending to wash another glass, always a legitimate bartender activity, the swarthy man took a better look at this guy. His presence here seemed completely out of place; he was the type to be picking up the prison soap. Yet upon further examination, the bartender realized that he was actually quite muscled, and carried himself with unnatural grace. Probably a martial artist type, then. Was he working with Samus?

A man dressed half in technological armor strode up beside Samus and leaned against the bar next to her. She ignored him as he slapped down a hand and ordered a drink. At least she appeared to... she had already identified that he wore light armor, had a bionic arm, one eye was prosthetic and probably enhanced and the claw on one of his arms was rigged to fire low level plasma shots. Medium-difficulty, as far as space pirates went.

"Just thought I'd give you a tip," he told her confidentially from the corner of his mouth. "This ain't like Bounty Hunter HQ. Any station bold enough to declare itself space pirate territory is a dangerous place. You don't go around threatening the bartender. Not unless you want everyone coming down on you."

"I'll keep that in mind," Samus answered, slightly disdainfully. A few more minutes...

"That's good to hear. Wouldn't want a face like yours getting shot in. If you've ever had a gang of space pirates after you... that's a scary thing you don't want to happen."

Samus smiled at him humorlessly, though he failed to understand the irony. The bartender, watching their conversation while casually wiping a cup, shivered involuntarily. He didn't want to think about what exactly that smile could mean. Best to head off this situation before it got any further. Leaning on the edge of the bar, he caught the space pirate's eyes and jerked his head to the right.

Confused, the pirate followed his order and walked to the opposite end of the bar, which was deserted. As soon as they were out of most of the bar's sight, the bartender set his hand down on the pirate's normal limb, digging his fingernails into it slowly. The man winced in pain, but showed no sign of it otherwise.

"Are you crazy?" the bartender hissed. "Do you know who that is?"

"Some newbie chick?"

"That's _Samus Aran_! Do you want her going off in here?"

"That's Samus?" the pirate gaped, barely remembering to keep his voice down. "Holy crap! And she's just sitting there without a single problem? Shouldn't we be-"

"We prepared for this," the bartender told him lowly, eyes narrowing. He didn't want to tell this oaf anything important but if it shut him up it didn't matter. "We've lured her here just to kill her. This place is a death trap. High-level forces will be down here in a few minutes to take her out. Until then, keep your damn mouth shut."

"Fuck that! The bitch's gonna die for- ugh." The bartender let his fingers stop just before they drew blood. The last thing they needed was morons like this guy... or the morons like the ones crowding around the bar. Evidently they decided to do a bit of vigilante work. At least as vigilante as you could be in a loosely organized piracy organization.

Sighing, the bartender moved to head off a potentially volatile mess before the situation became a bloodbath as it properly should.

* * *

With growing annoyance the space pirate watched the young man by the bar continue to read. Who did this guy think he was, anyway? This was one of the seedier bars on an already seedy station, due to being closest to the docking bays, and he didn't seem to care. He didn't even seem to be particularly cautious; he was focused on whatever he was reading.

Getting up from his seat, the man sat on the stool next to the new kid. He was probably not going to last very long. Not if he could help it, anyway. A few other toughs were moving in similar ways, probably with similar ideas. He flashed one of them a wink... maybe they could initiate this kid. If he survived that it'd say quite a bit for his character. But first, he wanted to get a better look at this guy.

Nice black hair, uncombed but still looking civil. Wearing decent black and white attire. A few things were odd about him, though. His back muscles looked unusually built... was it possible that he had some sort of weapon hidden under the back of his shirt? Suicide bombings were far from unheard of. Though he was muscled, he was built in strange places.

Now curious, the space pirate did his best to look closer without being conspicuous. This guy looked normal from a distance, but the more you looked at him the stranger he seemed. At various places on what was visible of his skin there seemed to be thin slits. Though he prided himself in courage, this was beginning to disturb the space pirate.

"Yo, freak," he said. The young man glanced up at him expressionlessly. "You're in our seating area." He wasn't, but the space pirate banged his mug down on the table anyway. The others followed suit. Briefly the man glanced at all of them, then he calmly put away his small computer. "You think you can just leave after that?" the bounty hunter grated.

"Not really," was the calm answer. The next instant the man moved jerked his hand to the right. Instantly the mugs sitting on the bar, and a good portion of the bar itself, split in half with one long, clean cut. All of the space pirates gaped in shock, and immediately looked at the newcomer's hand, which was now raised to his side. Each finger had parted bloodlessly, and long blades had emerged from each.

"Bastard!" one of the standing space pirates muttered, not noticing the young man's hand. He moved to grab the freak by the arm. "I'll-" His voice cut off as a spike emerged from the young man's elbow and pierced the pirate's arm.

"Yer, yer not human!" the sitting space pirate stammered, unable to react.

"Is that a problem with you?" the young man asked, seconds before dark plates began to emerged from small slits in his clothing.

Seeing Tal was into some trouble, Samus set down her glass lightly and fired into that corner of the bar. All the guys near Tal fell away, and he calmly finished his drink and stood up. Behind her, the thugs who had been approaching now all roared and converged upon her, brandishing guns.

In a flash Tal was around the bar, claws slicing through the group's weapons. With a series of devastating silvery flashes he cut through all of them, leaving them to fall to the ground in pieces. Samus used the time to off the rest of her drink and set it down.

The bartender was pulling a gun from under the bar. Kicking her helmet up from her foot and to her hand, Samus bashed him over the head with it. As he fell, she calmly stood up beside Tal. Around them, the entire bar was in an uproar, and shots were being fired at random, not even generally at them.

Without blinking, Samus fused her helmet in place and Tal closed his exoskeleton around his face. As one, they struck.

* * *

"Ensign. Techie. Whoever the hell is in charge of this mess. What's going on?"

"Err... that's a bit complicated, sir." The young technician gulped and pretended to be looking very intently at the screens before him. When the man who was more or less the leader of the space pirate station got angry, heads rolled. Sometimes literally, if the swords on his wall were for more than show.

"Make it less complicated," the pirate ordered, flicking a cigar toward the floor. "Don't sugar coat the situation or try to do anything to promote yourself. I know lies when I hear them. What is the state of the plan?"

"It, it should continue without problems, sir." He had to keep up a good front, at least long enough to get himself out of here. On a station like this, backstabbing was as common as drinking. Sometimes more common, in bad seasons. Since he had orchestrated most of this plan, it would be his responsibility.

"Without problems, eh?" the pirate asked, tone dropping to an icy grate. "Is that why they aren't dead yet? Is that why both of them happily destroyed their way out of the bar and are now headed toward an airlock?"

"There are secondary measures, sir," he rushed to explain. "They were forced to split up, and there are forces in their way. The first route contains a heavy squad of pirates-"

"-the ones that all got shot before they could touch guns?"

"-and the E3 block contains another heavy squad."

"-the ones that are currently mincemeat on the floor?"

Sweat began to break out on the young technician's head. This was bad. Very, very bad.

"You think I don't have my own sources, kid?" the older pirate asked, throwing up one leg on his chair's armrest. "I've been in this job a long time. Kids like you have to be pretty quick about things or you don't really serve much purpose." He paused, his eyes flashing malevolently. "Right now, you seem pretty unnecessary."

* * *

Jerking her head down, Samus narrowly avoided a bolt of fire. She responded in kind, guessing roughly off the source of the shot. Having an opportunity to look, she discovered that she had taken down one. Firing again, she took out the next closest space pirate. One dove at her, a metallic claw swiping, but Samus barely swept away from the blow, smashed a foot into his jaw just in time to be ready for the next phase.

Yes, this was how life was supposed to be.

Beside her, Tal's claws were flashing with fierce precision. By large he left the long range enemies to her, which suited her just fine. Up ahead another group of soldiers moved to fire upon them, and Samus launched a missile into the ground ahead of them. The explosion left both parties blind.

Bursting ahead of her, Tal was through the smoke in an instant. When it cleared the barricade of space pirates was no more. That was pretty much what she'd wanted him to do. He was generally good at that. She caught up to him and they both swept on.

A massive form loomed in front of them abruptly. Both of them ducked beneath two massive fists, Samus continuing on and up a wall, Tal back flipping away. Raising his arms, the heavily armored pirate sent missiles from both his elbows. They kept Tal busy for a moment, but left Samus open to blast him in the back, an opportunity she gladly took.

It did little damage to the armor, so the hulking pirate barely stumbled forward. But in the time he did so, Tal was already moving forward, claws flashing. A burst of gas exploded from the pirate's leg, and Tal leapt backward to evade it.

No longer in danger of getting in his way, Samus moved forward, catching the bounty hunter's arm before he could fire again and smashing him down into the ground. Tal was back the next moment, a bladed hand ripping away the pirate's helmet. Before he could strike again, Samus ended the battle.

Moments later the wall of the station exploded. Both of them hurtled from it the next instant, flying out into space.

* * *

The gun was raised in the air, on the technician's neck. Both of them paused briefly as they saw the explosion. Even after the distraction was over, the leader of the space pirates remained frozen, not firing as he had intended to seconds before.

"They are fleeing!" the technician exclaimed, sweating at the gunpoint at his neck. "The... the plan was not a failure!"

"Oh, shut up," the leader grunted, sitting down heavily and tossing his gun aside.

"W-what?"

"You messed up the plan. Any moron could have done it better than you did. I'm not sure it would have mattered, but they wouldn't have been as thick-skulled as you were. Incompetent fool."

"Then why didn't you kill me?" the technician almost demanded, still not certain why he was alive.

"What's the point?" the space pirate answered fatalistically. "They had this planned from the start- they knew we wanted them to come here. No bounty hunter like Samus Aran would pull off something of this level only to leave harmlessly."

"Do... do you mean..."

"Want a drink?" the other interrupted, pulling a bottle from beside him. Thetrembling technician refused with violent shaking of his head. "Your loss, then." Slowly the commander poured himself a glass of sparkling clear wine. Excellent vintage; it had been a lot of work to steal it. But ah well. "I'm not a poor loser, though. Live and let live. You sure you don't want a drink?"

"What are you talking about?" the technician exploded. The older man refused to even glance at him. Swirling the wine in the glass and looking at it contemplatively, the space pirate lifted it into the air in a toast.

"To Samus and whoever the hell that guy was!"

* * *

"You set it to one minute upon trigger? Why?"

"Figured that one of them might try to set it off early," Samus answered, casually tapping ship controls as the vessel continued to put distance between itself and the station. "One minute was all we really would have needed anyway. They can't do much to stop it in that time, and any fool would recognize that."

"Hm." Tal merely continued leaning against one of the bulkheads, his arms folded.

"Have you ever seen hydrogen nitroglycerin proxide detonate before?" Samus asked over her shoulder. "You might want to."

"Sure." Tal moved to where he could see the space station. He had only a brief second to see it hang in space before it exploded in a gigantic blue and purple inferno. A shockwave radiated out from the former station almost instantly, passing over the ship but barely jostling it. Pretty impressive indeed.

"It's a bit weird," he commented slowly, quietly. His tone made Samus glance away from the space ship controls, raising an eyebrow. "Almost all my life was consumed by one goal, and without it everything is very surreal. Its difficult to believe that it's been two weeks, or that I don't have to worry about it anymore."

"And what do you think of it?"

"It's nice, actually. I could get used to this sort of thing."

"Like I said, this isn't the sum total of life. We went to all that work so things could be normal, after all."

"Or as normal as things can be when one is a cross-breed of dozens of monsters and doesn't even vaguely resemble a human any more," Tal said introspectively. "What is humanity, anyway? Isn't that the question we've been asking the entire time? And I don't think we've answered it, between twisted experiments and aliens and monsters, both human and inhuman. Will that question remain forever unanswered?"

Samus smiled at him, just because he was who he was. "Whatever."


End file.
